Ghrelin Attenuates Production of Reactive Oxygen Species and Endothelin-1 Gene Expression Induced by Angiotensin II in Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells

Objective To investigate the effect of ghrelin on reactive oxygen species(ROS) and endothelin-1 (ET-1) mRNA expression in human umbilical vein endothelial cells(HUVECs) induced by angiotensinⅡ(AngⅡ) in vitro.Methods HUVECs(each n=6) were randomly cultured with:control;Ghrelin(10~(-7) mol/L);AngⅡ(10~(-7) mol/L);AngⅡ(10~(-7) mol/L) plus Ghrelin 10~(-8),10~(-7),10~(-6) mol/L,respectively.After being cocultured for 18 hours intracellular ROS levels were determined by flow cytometry(FCM),ET-1 contents by radioimmunoassay and ET-1 mRNA expression by RT-PCR.Results AngⅡ(10~(-7) mol/L) significantly increased HUVECs ROS production and ET-1 release(ROS,AngⅡ:21.4±2.2 vs control:2.9±0.9;ET-1,AngⅡ:111.3±7.9 vs control 43.2±9.7 10~(-7) mol/L,P0.01) as well as ET-1 mRNA(P0.01).Cocultured Ghrelin significantly prevent the production of ROS and the release of ET-1 induced by AngⅡ,while significantly increase the production of NO in HUVECs(P0.05),while no effect was shown when ghrelin was cultured alone.Conclusion AngⅡ(10~(-7) mol/L) obviously stimulate the production of ROS and ET-1 and increase ET-1 mRNA expression in HUVECs, GhrelinG(10~(18)—10~(-6)mol/L) dose dependently inhibited the effect of AngⅡon ET-1 mRNA expression, ROS and ET-1 production in HUVECs.