Korean J Physiol Pharmacol.  2007 Oct;11(5):189-195.

Effects of Antioxidants on the Gamma-Radiation Damage of the Cultured Vascular Smooth Mucle Cells of Rat Aorta

• Lee JD
• Choi HC
• Kang YJ
• Kim MS
• Lee KY

Abstract

To study the protective effects of antioxidants on the radiation damages of the cells, vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) from thoracic aorta of Sprague-Dawley rats were cultured and irradiated with gamma-ray. Cell viability was measured by direct cell counting and MTT assay, and flow cytometry was performed to measure fractional distributions of the cells. Gamma-ray irradiation inhibited cell proliferations accompanied with decreased G1 phase and increased S- and G2/M phases, and the maximum effects were observed at 1500 or 2000 cGy. Submaximal concentrations of antioxidants, such as allopurinol, vitamin C, N-acetylcycteine (NAC), lipoic acid, dihydrolipoic acid and rebamipide tended to increase the cell viability suppressed by low dose of radiation (500 cGy), and enalapril and vitamin E increased it significantly. Allopurinol, vitamin E, NAC, lipoic acid, captopril and enalapril significantly increased G1 phase. Allopurinol and vitamin E tended to increase c-Myc expression, detected by Western blot, that was reduced by the radiation, and enalapril increased it significantly. The cell viability and c-Myc expression were highly correlated (r=0.97) with each other. These results suggest that antioxidants, especially enalapril and vitamin E, recover the viability of VSMC from gamma-radiation injury, through a mechanism which includes increase of c-Myc protein expression.

Keyword

Antioxidant; Vascular smooth muscle cell; Proliferation; Cell cycle; Gamma ray; c-Myc

MeSH Terms

Allopurinol
Animals
Antioxidants*
Aorta*
Aorta, Thoracic
Ascorbic Acid
Blotting, Western
Captopril
Cell Count
Cell Cycle
Cell Survival
Enalapril
Flow Cytometry
G1 Phase
Gamma Rays
Muscle, Smooth, Vascular
Rats*
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
Thioctic Acid
Vitamin E
Vitamins
Allopurinol
Antioxidants
Ascorbic Acid
Captopril
Enalapril
Thioctic Acid
Vitamin E
Vitamins