Influence of Different Administration Timepoints on the Endothelial Protective Effects of Sodium Tanshinone IIA Sulfonate

OBJECTIVE To investigate the influence of different administration timepoints on the endothelial protective effects of sodium tanshinone II A sulfonate(STS). METHODS Human umbilical vein endothelial cells(HUVEC) were divided into five groups, individually stimulated, including DMEM group, lipopolysaccharide(LPS) group, STS pre-treatment+LPS group, STS co-treatment+LPS group, STS post-treatment+LPS group. The final concentration of LPS in the experiment was 1 μg·mL^-1, and that of STS was 25 μg·mL^-1, LPS stimulation time was 12 h. After that, HUVEC viability was determined by CCK-8 assay. The protein concentration of inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1β(IL-1β) in HUVEC culture supernatant was detected by ELISA. The protein levels of nuclear factor κB(NF-κB) in HUVEC lysate were detected by Western blotting. The migration capacity of HUVEC was detected by wound-healing test. HUVEC apoptosis was observed under an optical microscopy, and the expression of apoptosis-related proteins including cleaved caspase-3 and cleaved caspase-9 were detected by Western blotting. RESULTS Compared with DMEM group, after LPS treatment, HUVEC cell viability was decreased; IL-1β and NF-κB protein expression increased; migration capacity impaired; increased apoptosis with the higher protein expression of cleaved caspase-3 and cleaved caspase-9(P<0.05). STS treatments could partially reverse these LPS-induced phenomena, among which the STS pre-treatment was most effective, while the STS post-treatment was with relative lower efficacy. CONCLUSION STS pre-treatment, co-treatment and post-treatment can partially reverse LPS-induced HUVEC dysfunction and apoptosis, among which the STS pre-treatment is most effective.