[Effects of curcumin on syndecan-4 protein and p44/42 mitogen-activated protein kinase expression in tumor necrosis factor-α-induced rat vascular smooth muscle cells in vitro].

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the effects of curcumin on the expression of syndecan-4 protein and p44/42 mitogen- activated protein kinase(MAPK) phosphorylation in rat vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) induced by tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in vitro.

METHODS

Rat VSMCs cultured in vitro were stimulated for 24 h by 20 ng/ml TNF-α, 20 µmol/L curcumin, or 20 ng/ml TNF-α plus 20 µmol/lL curcumin. /assay was adopted to evaluate the proliferation of the VSMCs, and the expression of syndecan-4 protein and phosphorylated p44/42 MAPK were determined by Western blotting.

RESULTS

Compared with the normal control cells, VSMCs exposed to TNF-α showed significantly enhanced proliferation (P/0.01). Curcumin treatment did not obviously affect the growth of otherwise untreated VSMCs(P>0.05), but could significantly suppress TNF-α-induced proliferation of VSMCs (P/0.01). TNF-α treatment also significantly increased the expression of syndecan-4 protein and phosphorylated p44/42 MAPK (P<0.01), which was markedly lowered by treatment with curcumin (P/0.01). Curcumin alone did not produce any obvious effects on the expression of syndecan-4 protein or phosphorylated p44/42 MAPK (P>0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

Curcumin can suppress the proliferation of rat VSMCs and lower the expression of syndecan-4 protein and phosphorylated p44/42 MAPK in TNF-α-induced VSMCs.