Vasonatrin peptide attenuates hypoxia-induced expression of c Fos gene in cultured cardiac fibroblasts

Chief aim of the present work was to investigate vasonatrin peptide (VNP) attenuates hypoxia induced expression of c fos gene in cardiac fibroblasts from cultured neonatal rats. The cultured cardiac fibroblasts were divided randomly into four groups: Control group, hyoxia group (20~30 mL·L -1 ), VNP group (10 -8 ~10 -6 mol·L -1 ) and VNP (10 -6 mol·L -1 )+hypoxia group. The c Fos expression of cardiac fibroblasts was measured by the means of immunocytochemistry, [Ca 2+ ] i concentration was measured by the means of interactive laser cytometer. The studies performed with these techniques show that hypoxia increased significantly the positive cells and mean grey of cardiac fibroblasts ( P 0 05 vs control group), VNP decreased the positive cells ( P 0.05 vs control group) and decreased the level of [Ca 2+ ] i in VNP+hypoxia group. These findings indicate that VNP can attenuate hypoxia induced expression of c fos gene in cardiac fibroblasts which was associated with the changes of the[Ca 2+ ] i.