Cinnabar protects serum-nutrient starvation induced apoptosis by improving intracellular oxidative stress and inhibiting the expression of CHOP and PERK

Biochemistry and Biophysics Reports

Hong-Hong Ma¹  Xia Li¹  Yang Wang¹  Yan-Nan Ding¹  Fu-Guo Shi¹  Yuan-Fu Lu¹  Ao Wang² 

[1] Joint International Research Laboratory of Ethnomedicine, and Key Laboratory of Basic Pharmacology of Ministry of Education, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, 563000, China;Zunyi Institute of Product Quality Inspection and Testing, Zunyi, 563000, China;

关键词: Cinnabar;    Inorganic mercury;    Apoptosis;    Reactive oxygen species;    CHOP;    PERK;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Cinnabar has been used for treatment of various disorders for thousands of years. The medical use of cinnabar, however, has been controversial because of its heavy metal mercury content. A large quantity of studies indicate that the toxicity of cinnabar is far below other inorganic or organic mercury-containing compounds. Yet, the underlying molecular basis has remained unresolved. Here, we investigated the beneficial effects of cinnabar on serum-nutrient starvation-elicited cell injury. Our findings showed that treatment of human renal proximal tubular cells (HK-2) with 4 nM cinnabar effectively inhibited nutrient deprivation induced apoptosis, reduced intracellular reactive oxygen species generation and increased GSH content, which was contrary to the exacerbated apoptotic cell death and oxidative stress in cells treated with HgCl2 at equal mercury concentration. In addition, cinnabar exerted robust antioxidative and antiapoptotic effects in cells under dual challenges of nutrient deprivation and treatment of H2O2. The protein expression levels of both CHOP and PERK were remarkably down-regulated in the cells treated with cinnabar compared to the control cells or cells treated with HgCl2. Overall, our data indicates that cinnabar at low concentration exerts anti-oxidative stress and anti-apoptosis effects by inhibiting the expression of the endoplasmic reticulum stress pathway proteins CHOP and PERK.

【 授权许可】

Unknown