Role of apoptosis and oxidative stress in high glucose-induced endothelial dysfunction in isolated aortic rings

Awad, Eman; Ahmed, Al-Shaimaa F.; El-Daly, Mahmoud; El-Tahawy, Nashwa; Kasem, Alshaimaa; Taye, Ashraf

doi:10.21608/jabps.2021.95071.1139

Role of apoptosis and oxidative stress in high glucose-induced endothelial dysfunction in isolated aortic rings

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Minia University

² Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Minia University, Egypt

³ Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Minia University, El-Minia 61519, Egypt

⁴ Department of Histology and Cell Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Minia University, Egypt

⁵ Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Minia University

⁶ Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, South Valley University

10.21608/jabps.2021.95071.1139

Abstract

Diabetes and its associated hyperglycemia represent a major health problem. One of the common complications of diabetes is endothelial dysfunction which leads to a number of cardiovascular diseases. Studying of the effect of hyperglycemia and possible treatment strategies necessities the induction of diabetes in vivo requires a long time for endothelial dysfunction to develop. Recently, in vitro models of hyperglycemia have been introduced in which vascular tissues are incubated in media containing high concentration of glucose which ultimately requires much less time for endothelial dysfunction development. In this study, we examined the effect of incubation of isolated aortic rings in a high glucose medium on their relaxation and contractile responses as well as the histopathological changes of aortic tissues. We also examined the involvement of oxidative stress and apoptosis in hyperglycemia induced endothelial dysfunction. The results of our study showed that incubation of aortic rings lead to a significant reduction of relaxation response of precontracted aortic rings along with an enhanced contractile response to epinephrine. This was associated with obvious histopathological alterations of aortic tissues. Aortic rings incubated in high glucose also exhibited an increased oxidative stress and a reduction of the anti-apoptotic marker, Bcl2. In conclusion, in vitro high glucose can be used as a model for studying endothelial dysfunction and its possible mechanisms involving oxidative stress and apoptotic pathway.

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