Effect of tanshinone IIA on TLR4 /NF-κB signal pathway of endothelial cells

Purpose To observe the influence of tanshinone ⅡA on the TLR4 /NF-κB inflammatory signal pathway in cultured human umbilical veins endothelial cells EA.hy926 induced by LPS,and to in-vestigate the molecular mechanism of tanshinone ⅡA against atherosclerosis(AS).Methods The human cells EA.hy926 were cultured in vitro.Observing the effect of low,middle,high dose of tanshinone ⅡA on EA.hy926 stimulated by LPS.The mRNA and protein expression of TLR4,NF-κB and TNF-α were tested by RT-PCR and Western blot method respectively.Results The mRNA and protein expression of TLR4、NF-κB and TNF-α were promoted significantly(P 0.05).Low dose of tanshinone ⅡA has no ob-vious difference of the expression from those of LPS stimulating group.However,middle and high dose of tanshinoneⅡ A could obviously inhibit the expression of TLR4,NF-κB and TNF-α(P 0.05).Conclu-sion One of the molecular mechanisms of tanshinone ⅡA against AS is to intervene the TLR4 /NF-κB in-flammatory signal pathway.