Effects of alpinetin on rat vascular smooth muscle cells.

The object of this work was to study the effects of alpinetin on cultured rat aortic smooth muscle cells. It was observed that H2O2 (100 micromol L(-1)) induced increase of LDH (lactate dehydrogenase) leakage in the medium of VSMC by 7.4% (p < 0.01) and 10(-7) mol L(-1) alpinetin significantly decreased LDH leakage induced by H2O2 (p < 0.01). Alpinetin had the effects of inhibiting VSMC proliferation in a dose-dependent manner under the condition of serum stimulation for 24 and 48 h, but with serum stimulation for 72 h adverse effects on VSMC proliferation appeared. 10(-7) and 10(-8) mol L(-1) alpinetin had significantly inhibitory effects on VSMC migration by 67.9% (p < 0.001) and 34.1% (p < 0.01) respectively. It was also found that alpinetin (10(-7)-10(-9) mol L(-1)) could significantly inhibit the production of NO in cultured VSMC induced by TNFalpha (200 U ml(-1)). At 10(-7), 10(-8) and 10(-9) mol L(-1) the modulation of NO was by 22.6% (p < 0.001), 20.6% (p < 0.01) and 13.9% (p < 0.05), respectively. In summary, the data show that alpinetin has, to some extent, protective effects on VSMC.