Research Article Anti-Proliferative Effect of an Aqueous Extract of Prunella vulgaris in Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells

Copyright © 2013 Sun Mi Hwang et al.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The abnormal proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) in arterial walls is an important pathogenic factor of vascular disorders such as diabetic atherosclerosis. We have reported the anti-inflammatory effect of an aqueous extract from Prunella vulgaris (APV) in vascular endothelial cell. In the present study, APV exhibited inhibitory effects on high glucose-stimulated VSMC proliferation, migration, and invasion activities, inducing G 1 cell cycle arrest with downregulation of cyclins and CDKs and upregulation of the CKIs, p21waf1/cip1 and p27kip1. Furthermore, APV dose dependently suppressed the high glucose-induced matrix metalloproteinase activity. High glucose-induced phosphorylation of ERK, p38 MAPK, was decreased by the pretreatment of APV. NF