Protective effects of blueberry anthocyanins on hydrogen peroxide- induced injury of vascular endothelial cells

Objective: To investigate the protective effects of blueberry anthocyanins on hydrogen peroxide( H2O2)-induced apoptosis of vascular endothelial cells.Methods: The EVC-304 cells cultured in logarithmic growth phase were incubated with 100 μmol/L H2O2 for another 12 h after pretreatment with blueberry anthocyanins( 10,20,and40 μg·m L-1)for 24 h.Cell viability was determined by MTT assay,the change of cell apoptosis were measured with cytoanalyzer,and the expression levels of Cleaved Caspase-3,Cyto c,Bax,and Bcl-2 were detected by Western blotting.Results: Compared with the normal control group,the survival rate of H2O2-treated cells was decreased and the apoptosis ratio was increased significantly( p < 0.01),the proportion of cleaved Caspase-3,Cytoc and Bax/Bcl-2 was increased( p < 0.01). Compared with H2O2-treated group,the survival rate of cells in blueberry anthocyanins-pretreated groups was increased significantly( p < 0.01),the apoptosis rate was decreased significantly( p < 0.01).The expression of intracellular cleaved caspase-3,Cyto c and Bax/Bcl-2 was decreased( p < 0.01). Conclusion: Blueberry anthocyanin had protective effect on hydrogen peroxide-induced vascular endothelial cells apoptosis and the possible mechanism may be associated with protection the function of mitochondrion.