Puerarin prevents progression of experimental hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension via inhibition of autophagy

In this study, we explored the effects of puerarin in a hypoxic pulmonary hypertension (PH) rat model using immunohistochemistry, and morphometric analyses of right ventricle. In addition, cell counting kit 8 assay, western blotting and flow cytometry were employed to test cell proliferation in PASMCs, and then autophagy was tested with mRFP-GFP-LC3 fluorescence microscopy and western blot. We found that puerarin could alleviate hypoxia-induced PH in rats and improved pulmonary histopathology, and also reduced the expression of autophagy markers in vivo and in vitro. Moreover, puerarin also ameliorated hypoxia-induced PASMC proliferation in an autophagy-dependent manner. Overall, these findings demonstrated that puerarin could prevent hypoxia-induced PH in rats, possibly via reducing autophagy and suppressing cell proliferation.
Source: Journal of Pharmacological Sciences - Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Source Type: research