Journal
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NUTRITION
Volume 53, Issue 1, Pages 269-275Publisher
SPRINGER HEIDELBERG
DOI: 10.1007/s00394-013-0525-7
Keywords
Luteolin; Vasorelaxation; endothelial cells; eNOS; NO
Categories
Funding
- National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine of National Institute of Health [1R21AT004694, 1R21AT002739]
- American Diabetes Association [1-08-JF-30]
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Luteolin, a flavone present in many foods and medicinal plants, may have beneficial effects on various human chronic diseases. In the present study, we investigated the hypothesis that luteolin can directly act on vascular endothelial cells (ECs), leading to nitric oxide (NO) production and subsequent vascular relaxation. Rat aortic rings were mounted in organ bath. Luteolin was added cumulatively, and vessel relaxation of rat aortic rings precontracted with phenylephrine (PE) or potassium was recorded. Endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) phosphorylation at Ser1177 and NO production from aortic rings and primary human aortic endothelial cells (HAECs) exposed to luteolin were measured by using Western blot and fluorometric assay, respectively. Luteolin dose-dependently (10-100 mu mol/L) elicited relaxation of PE- or potassium-contracted aortic rings. The vasorelaxation effect of luteolin was attenuated by the eNOS inhibitor, N-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester, suggesting that this luteolin action is at least partially mediated by activating eNOS activity. We further found that luteolin dose-dependently (10-100 mu mol/L) increased eNOS phosphorylation at Ser1177 (up to 1.9-fold) in isolated rat rings. Consistently, exposure of HAECs to luteolin also increased eNOS phosphorylation and NO production. Luteolin may be a vascular protective agent by directly acting on vascular ECs to stimulate NO-dependent vascular dilatation.
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