Effect of artesunat on the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor and vascular endothelial growth factor receptors in SHI-1 cell line

Objective To investigate the effect of artesunate on the expression of vascular endothlial growth factors (VEGF) and VEGFR in SHI-1 cell line. Methods Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay analysis was performed to detect the amount of VEGF in culture supernatants of SHI-1 cell in the condition of artesunate or not. The expression of VEGFR1 and VEGFR2 in SHI-1 cell in the condition of artesunate or not were detected by flow cytometry. Results Without artesunate, the concentration of VEGF in the culture supernatant of SHI-1 cell were (980.3±2.2) pg/ml in 24 h and (982.4±2.3) pg/ml in 48 h. The expression of VEGFRI in SHI-1 cell were (6.40±3.11) ％ in 24 h and (6.45±2.85) ％ in 48 h. The expression of VEGFR2 in SHI-1 cell were (13.90±2.26) ％ in 24 h and (13.95±1.96) ％ in 48 h. With artesunate at 5, 10, 20 ng/ml, the concentration of VEGF in culture supematant of SHI-1 cell were (234.6±1.8) pg/ml, (114.9±1.6) pg/ml, (108.8±1.5) pg/ml in 24 h and (62.3±1.7) pg/ml, (60.9±1.6) pg/ml, (32.7±1.7) pg/ml in 48 h, respectively. The levels of VEGF in SHI-1 cells treated with artesunate at different concentrations decreased significantly (P ＜0.05). There was significant difference between 24 hours group and 48 hours group (P ＜0.05). The expression of VEGFR1 in SHI-1 cell were (4.30±2.21) ％, (4.20±1.37) ％, (3.90±1.86) ％ in 24 h and (3.80±2.87) ％, (3.60±1.73) ％, (3.00±1.82) ％ in 48 h, respectively. The expression of VEGFR1 in SHI-1 cell treated with artesunate at different concentrations were not significantly different (P ＞0.05). No significant difference between 24 hours group and 48 hours group was observed (P ＞0.05). VEGFR2 expression of SHI-1 cell were (4.40±1.15) ％, (3.10±0.68) ％, (1.10±0.72) ％ in 24 h and (3.00±1.68) ％, (2.20±0.93) ％, (0.60±0.92) ％ in 48 h, respectively. The results indicated that the expression of VEGFR2 in SHI-1 cells treated with artesunate at different concentrations reduced significantly (P ＜0.05), but there was no significant difference between 24 h group and 48 h group (P ＞0.05). Conclusion The concentration of VEGF in SHI-1 cell was high, and artesunate can down-regulate the expression of VEGF and VEGFR2, but the effect of artesunate on the VEGFR1 was not significant. Key words: Vascular endothlial growth factors;  Receptors, vascular endothelial growth factor; , SHI-1 cell line;  Artesunate