Iptakalim Ameliorates Relaxation to Acetylcholine in Thoracic Aortic Rings Impaired by Microvesicles Derived from Hypoxia/ Reoxygenation-Treated HUVECs

OBJECTIVE:To investigate the effect of Iptakalim (Ipt) preventing injury of endothelial microvesicles (EMVs) derived from hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R)-treated HUVECs on the relaxation of rat thoracic aortic rings and explore the underlying mechanism.METHODS:H/R injury model was established to release H/R-EMVs from HUVECs. H/R-EMVs from HUVECs were isolated by ultracentrifugation from the conditioned culture medium. H/R-EMVs were characterized by using Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM). Thoracic aortic rings of rats were incubated with 10-7-10-3 mol/L Ipt and co-cultured with 10 μg/ml H/R-EMVs for 4 hours, and their endothelium-dependent relaxation in response to acetylcholine (ACh) was recorded in vitro. The nitric oxide (NO) production of ACh-treated rat thoracic aortic rings was measured by using Griess reagent. The expression of endothelial NO synthase (eNOS), phosphorylated eNOS (p-eNOS, Ser-1177), serine/threonine kinas (Akt) and phosphorylated Akt (p-Akt, Ser-473) in the thoracic aortic rings of rats was detected by Western blotting.RESULTS:H/R-EMVs were induced by H/R-treated HUVECs and isolated by ultracentrifugation. The isolated H/R-EMVs subjected to TEM revealed small, rounded vesicles (100-1 000 nm) surrounded by a membrane. H/R-EMVs impaired relaxation induced by ACh of rat thoracic aortic rings significantly. Compared with H/R-EMVs treatment individually, relaxation and NO production of rat thoracic aortic rings were increased by Ipt treatment in a concentration-dependent manner (P<0.05, P<0.01). The expression of total eNOS (t-eNOS) and total Akt (t-Akt) was not affected by Ipt or H/R-EMVs. However, the expression of p-eNOS and p-Akt increased after treated with Ipt (P<0.01).CONCLUSIONS:Based on H/R-EMVs treatment, ACh induced endothelium-dependent relaxation of rat thoracic aortic rings was ameliorated by Ipt in a concentration-dependent manner. The mechanisms involved the increase in NO production, p-eNOS and p-Akt expression.