Objective: To explore the relationship of the impairment of human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) with amyloid-β.
Methods: HUVECs were cultured in the serum of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) or serum of healthy control (HC), while fetal bovine serum (FBS) was used as a negative control. The proliferative activity of HUVEC were assessed by thiazolyl blue tetrazolium bromide (MTT) after 72 h. The supernatant concentrations of superoxide dismutase (SOD), maleic dialdehyde (MDA), nitric oxide (NO), amyloid-β40 (Aβ40) and Aβ42 were measured after 0.5, 3 and 72 h respectively.
Results: Glycosylated hemoglobin values, fasting plasma glucose and fasting plasma Aβ40 concentrations of diabetic patients were higher than those of healthy counterparts (P < 0.01). Proliferative activity of HUVECs in group DM were significantly lower than that of group HC. Both group and the time of intervention had crossover effects on the levels of MDA, SOD, NO and Aβ40 ((163 ± 64), (207 ± 69), (286 ± 75) ng/L in group DM; (146 ± 76), (154 ± 75), (161 ± 72) ng/L in group HC after 0.5, 3 and 72 h, P < 0.05) and Aβ42 ((48 ± 46), (54 ± 43), (79 ± 44) ng/L in group DM; (41 ± 12), (44 ± 16), (48 ± 12) ng/L in group HC after 0.5, 3 and 72 h, P < 0.05). With the elongating time of intervention, the levels of SOD and NO decreased significantly in group DM and reached the lowest after 72 h while increased significantly in groups HC and FBS and peaked after 72 h. The concentrations of MDA, Aβ40 and Aβ42 increased significantly in all three groups while the fastest and marked increments were found in group DM (P < 0.01). Pearson correlation analysis showed that SOD was negatively correlated with Aβ40 (r = -0.482, P = 0.02) and Aβ42 (r = -0.422, P = 0.02) while MDA positively with Aβ40 (r = 0.418, P < 0.05) and Aβ42 (r = 0.833, P < 0.05) after 72 h.
Conclusion: Oxidative stress of vascular endothelial cells may be correlated with Aβ40 and Aβ42 in diabetes.