The Protective Effects of the Active Fraction of Shaofu Zhuyu Decoction on Hydrogen Peroxide-Induced Oxidative Injury in Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells

Abstract

In this paper, the protective effects of the active fraction (SF-7) from Shaofu Zhuyu decoction (SFZYD) were tested on a hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-induced rat vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) oxidative injury model. This active fraction (SF-7) shows potent antioxidant properties. The cell viability and oxidative damage markers of VSMCs were determined after exposure to H2O2 for 16 hours. It was observed that SF-7 significantly increased cell survival and reduced apoptosis of H2O2-injured VSMCs. Moreover, SF-7 could markedly increase intracellular superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and decrease the malondialdehyde (MDA) level in H2O2-injured VSMCs, and suppress the generation of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), as well as intracellular Ca2+ concentration. Thus, SF-7 exhibits protective effects against H2O2-injury on VSMCs, which may be associated with its antioxidant properties. It is suggested that SF may be useful in the treatment of blood stasis syndrome in which oxidative injury is mainly implicated.

Keywords

• blood stasis syndrome
• oxidative damage
• reactive oxygen species
• apoptosis
• vascular smooth muscle cells