Improvement of Endothelial Dysfunction of Berberine in Atherosclerotic Mice and Mechanism Exploring through TMT-Based Proteomics

Figure 3

Berberine improved endothelial dysfunction in vivo and in vitro. (a and b) ApoE^-/- mice fed with western-type diet were intragastrically gavaged with berberine (156 mg·kg^-1) or atorvastatin for 12 weeks. After the end of the experiment, the mice were sacrificed and the thoracic aorta was isolated for aortic ring assay. (a) Endothelium-dependent relaxation induced by acetylcholine. (b) Endothelium-independent relaxation induced by sodium nitroprusside. (c and d) The isolated mice aortic rings were preincubated with berberine (10^-7, , 10^-6 M) for 30 min. The endothelium-dependent relaxation induced by acetylcholine (c) and endothelium-independent relaxation induced by sodium nitroprusside (d) were assayed by organ chamber. (e) Expression of eNOS (top, green) and ET-1 (bottom, red) in mice aortic root was determined by immunofluorescent staining. Nuclei were stained with DAPI (blue). Magnification: 200x. (f) Representative images of double immunofluorescence staining for CD31 (red) and TUNEL (green) in mice aortic root. Nuclei were stained with DAPI (blue). Magnification: 200x. Data are shown as , . ^# versus WT and versus ApoE^-/-. WT: wild-type; BBR: berberine; ATO: atorvastatin; eNOS: endothelial nitric oxide synthase; ET-1: Endothelin 1; DAPI: 4,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole.

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