Dehydroabietic Acid Isolated from Commiphora opobalsamum Causes Endothelium-Dependent Relaxation of Pulmonary Artery via PI3K/Akt-eNOS Signaling Pathway

Molecules

Wenyan Gao¹  Xiaoyan Dong¹  Nan Xie²  Chunlan Zhou¹  Yuhua Fan¹  Guoyou Chen¹  Yanming Wang¹  Taiming Wei¹ 

[1] College of Pharmacy, Harbin Medical University-Daqing, Daqing 163319, Heilongjiang, China; E-Mails:;College of Pharmacy, Harbin University of Commerce, Harbin 150028, Heilongjiang, China; E-Mail:

关键词: Commiphora opobalsamum;    dehydroabietic acid;    sandaracopimaric acid;    nitric oxide;    vasodilation;    pulmonary artery;   

DOI  :  10.3390/molecules19068503

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Commiphora opobalsamum is a Traditional Chinese Medicine used to treat traumatic injury, mainly by relaxing blood vessels. In this study, two diterpenes, dehydroabietic acid (DA) and sandaracopimaric acid (SA) were obtained from it by a bioassay-guided approach using isolated rat pulmonary artery rings. The structures of the two compounds were elucidated by spectroscopic methods (IR, ¹H- and ¹³C-NMR, HR-ESI-MS). Both DA and SA reduced the contraction of phenylephrine-induced pulmonary arteries in a concentration-dependent manner, and endothelium contributed greatly to the vasodilatory effect of DA. This effect of DA was attenuated by N^G-Nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME, an eNOS inhibitor). Meanwhile, DA increased nitric oxide (NO) production, along with the increase of phosphorylation level of eNOS and Akt in endothelial cells. LY294002 (a PI3K inhibitor) could reverse this effect, which suggested the endothelial PI3K/Akt pathway involved in the mechanism underlying DA-induced relaxation of pulmonary artery. This work provided evidence of vasorelaxant substances in Commiphora opobalsamum and validated that PI3K/Akt-eNOS pathway was associated with DA-induced pulmonary artery vasodilation.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.