Endothelium-Independent Vasorelaxant Effect of Ligusticum jeholense Root and Rhizoma on Rat Thoracic Aorta

Molecules

Bumjung Kim²  Kyungjin Lee²  Khanita Suman Chinannai²  Inhye Ham²  Youngmin Bu²  Hocheol Kim²  Ho-Young Choi¹ 

[1] Department of Herbology, College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 130-701, Korea;

关键词: Ligusticum jeholense;    vasorelaxant effect;    potassium channels;    calcium channels;    hypertension;   

DOI  :  10.3390/molecules200610721

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Ligusticum jeholense has been used as the traditional medicine ‘Go-Bon’ (Chinese name, Gao-ben) in China and Korea. Considering the increased use of medicinal herbs to treat hypertension, in this study, we aimed to investigate the mechanisms of the vasorelaxation effect caused by L. jeholense. We tested the methanol (MeOH) extract of L. jeholense root and rhizoma for vasorelaxant effects; while using an isolated organ-chamber technique, L. jeholense extract (LJE) induced relaxation in the rat aortic rings by stimulating vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells. LJE showed concentration-dependent relaxant effects on endothelium-intact and endothelium-denuded aortic rings pre-contracted with both phenylephrine (PE) and potassium chloride (KCl) in Krebs-Henseleit (KH) buffer. The vasorelaxant effect of LJE was partly attenuated by pre-treatment with glibenclamide or 4-aminopyridine (4-AP) as K⁺ channel blockers. Moreover, LJE showed concentration-dependent inhibition of vasoconstriction by Ca²⁺ supplementation in the aortic rings that were pre-contracted with PE or KCl in Ca²⁺-free KH buffer. In addition, a combination of LJE and nifedipine, pre-incubated further, decreased PE-induced contractions. The results suggested that LJE-induced vasorelaxation were related to blocking K⁺ channels and inhibiting entry of extracellular Ca²⁺ via receptor-operative Ca²⁺ channels (ROCCs) or voltage-dependent Ca²⁺ channels (VDCCs).

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.