[Study on effects of Astragalus, Angelica and their combination on vascular endothelial cell proliferation in vitro].

OBJECTIVE: To study the effects of Astragalus membranaceus (AM), Angelica sinensis (AS) and their combination on human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) proliferation and cells cycle. METHODS: The effects were observed and studied by means of taking the cultured HUVECs as model to determine the cell proliferation with MTT method, cell cycle was analyzed with cytometry, and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression with SABC method. The regulatory effects of AM, AS and their combination on the HUVEC proliferation promoting were observed and studied. RESULTS: AM and AS, used singly or in combination, could promote the growth of endothelial cells, increase the cell population in S phase, the effects showed more significant when used in combination (P < 0.05 or P < 0.001). Meanwhile, VEGF expression in all the medicated group was up-regulated, but in the PBS control group, it showed only weak expression (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: AM and AS have effect in promoting vascular endothelial cell proliferation and DNA synthesis, and showed synergistic effect when they were used in combination, suggesting that these two Chinese herbs could have certain effect on the genesis and development of neogenetic vascularization in ischemic myocardium.