Effect of tanshinone IIA on p38MAPK signal transduction pathway of rats' vascular smooth muscle cells under high glucose concentration

Objective To observe the effect of tanshinone ⅡA(TSN) on proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cell(VSMC) induced by high glucose and explore its relationship with oxidative stress and p38MAPK signal transduction pathway.Methods The arterial blood vessels of rats were separated carefully to culture VSMC by the tissue adherence method,and the third generation cells were employed for experiment.The cells were divided into normal control group,high glucose group and TSN group.DNA synthesis was analyzed by ELISA of BrdU.The activity of SOD and the contents of MDA in medium were measured with Xanthine oxidase method and TBA method.The expression levels of phosphorylated p38MAPK were detected by Western blot.Results The proliferation of VSMC induced by high glucose appeared fast,and the effect was in a dose-dependent manner in a concentration range of 10-25 mmol·L-1.TSN can restrain the proliferation of VSMC under the high glucose.And it also had an effect on the SOD and MDA in medium.The expression levels of phosphorylated p38MAPK of VSMC pretreated with TSN was lower than that of the VSMC stimulated by high glucose.Conclution TSN suppresses the proliferation of VSMC induced by high glucose,which is possiblely related with the suppression of oxygen free radical and p38MAPK signal transduction pathway.