Yiqi‐Huoxue Granule ameliorates the apoptosis induced by hydrogen peroxide through modulating UCP2 in H9c2 cells

The conservation of Yiqi‐Huoxue Granule (YQHX) on patients with cardiovascular diseases is associated with the alleviation of oxidative stress‐mediated injury; however, the underlying mechanism(s) is unclear. Our purpose was to explore the protective effects of YQHX on apoptosis induced by hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) in H9c2 cells. H9c2 cells were pretreated with YQHX for 16 h before being exposed to 200 μM H 2 O 2 for 6 h. The apoptosis induced by H 2 O 2 was determined using hoechst 33342 staining and Annexin‐V FITC/PI method. The expression level of UCP2, Bcl‐2, Bax, and caspase‐3 were measured using Western blotting. The effects of UCP2 knockdown with Lenti‐shUCP2 vector on cell apoptosis and production of intracellular ROS were also explored. H 2 O 2 stimulation resulted in prominent activation of oxidative stress followed by enhanced apoptosis and ROS production, as well as decreased UCP2 expression. YQHX at the concentration of 0.75 or 1.5 mg/ml significantly decreased the expression of Bax and caspase‐3, whereas increased the expression of Bcl‐2 and UCP2. The above effects were weakened by transgenic UCP2 knockdown. In short, the present study suggested that YQHX ameliorates the apoptosis induced by H 2 O 2 through modulating the expression of UCP in H9c2 Cells, indicating that YQHX is a potential therapeutic medication for the treatment of I/R injury‐mediated apoptosis. Support or Funding Information The present work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81473453, 81673800) and the Science and Technology Innovation Talents in Universities of Henan Province (No. 14HASTIT028). This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .