Effects of tanshinoneII A on endothelial progenitor cells from peripheral blood in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Objective To study the effect of tanshinoneⅡA (TanⅡA) on endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM).Methods 62 cases patients with T2DM were randomly divided into treatment and control groups. TanⅡA 40mg/d were given for two weeks based on the routine treatment in patients of treatment group. The level of plasma Stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1),the number of EPCs and the positive rate of CXCR4 were determined before and after treatment.Results Increasing SDF-1,EPCs and CXCR4 had significant difference in the treatment group pre and post treatment (P0.05 or P0.01);and those had significant difference between two groups (P0.05 or P0.01). There was a significant positive correlation between EPCs and SDF-1 (r=0.223,P0.05).Conclusion TanshinoneⅡA can improve vascular endothelial function in T2DM,which may be due to elevating the level of plasma SDF-1 and increasing the expression of CXCR4 on EPCs,and inducing EPCs mobilization in bone marrow to peripheral blood.