Intervention of tiaozhi granules on autophagy of HUVECs

Objective To investigate the effect of tiaozhi granules on the autophagy of HU-VECs in the cell,protein and molecular levels.Methods HUVECs were induced by tiaozhi granule medicated serum,6-amino-3-methyl purine (3-MA) and rapamycin.MTT was used to detect the cell viability after 48 hours with tiaozhi granule medicated serum.Western blot was used to detect the expressive level of LC3-Ⅱ.Immunofluorescence was used to detect change in the numbers of autophagosomes.Results After HUVECs was processed by tiaozhi granule medicated serum,the cell viability had not change,the relative expression of autophagy related protein LC3-Ⅱ increased,and the number of autophagosomes increased (P ＜ 0.05).After HUVECs was processed by tiaozhi granule medicated serum and rapamycin,cell viability had no change,while the relative expression of autophagy related protein LC3-Ⅱ and the number of autophagosomes decreased significantly when compared with the results of intervention with rapamycin only (P ＜ 0.05 or P ＜ 0.01).Conclusion Tiaozhi granules can inhibit excessive autophagy of endothelial cells and promote moderate autophagy in endothelial cells.