Finding the novel drug from the effective components of traditional Chinese herbal medicine is a hotspot of the modern pharmacological research. Hyperoside (HYP) belongs to flavonoid glycosides, and it has various properties, such as anti-inflammation, anti-spasm, anti-diuretic, antitussive, lowering blood pressure, and lowering cholesterol effects as well as protective effects for the cardiac and cerebral blood vessels. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of HYP on inflammatory and apoptotic responses in vascular endothelial cells stimulated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and further to identify the possible mechanisms underlying these effects. In our study, human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were stimulated with 1 μg/mL LPS in the presence or absence of HYP (10, 20 and 50 μmol/L). Our results indicated that HYP alone exerted no cytotoxicity on HUVECs, while it had an up-regulatory effect on the viability of HUVECs induced by LPS in a dose-dependent manner; increased mRNA expression of IL-1β, IL-6, TNFα and iNOS induced by LPS was attenuated after treatment with HYP both in a dose-and time-dependent manner; LPS-induced HUVECs apoptosis and cleaved-caspase 8, 9, 3 were all significantly reduced by HYP. Furthermore, the possible pathway involved in apoptosis and inflammation by HYP was detected, and the results showed that when treated with HYP, LPS-induced mitochondrial membrane instability was significantly inhibited through up-regulation of Bcl-2 and down-regulation of Bax. Furthermore, the expression of TLR4 and the phosphorylation of IκBα and p65 in LPS-treated cells were blocked by HYP. Our results suggested that HYP treatment prevented HUVECs from LPSinduced inflammation and apoptosis responses, which might be mediated by inhibiting TLR4/NFκB pathway.
Keywords: apoptosis; human umbilical vein endothelial cells; hyperoside; inflammation; lipopolysaccharide.