ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

International Angiology 1999 December;18(4):306-12

Copyright © 2000 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Effect of Ruscus extract and hesperidin methylchalcone on hypoxia-induced activation of endothelial cells

Bouaziz N., Michiels C., Janssens D., Berna N., Eliaers F., Panconi E., Remacle J.

From the Laboratoire de Biochimie et Biologie Cellulaire - Facultés Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix - Namur, Belgium * Institut de Recherche Pierre Fabre - Centre de Développement - Labège Innopole, France

Background. Ruscus acu­lea­tus ­extract and the flav­o­noid hes­per­i­din meth­yl­chal­cone (HMC) are drugs used in the treat­ment of chron­ic ­venous insuf­fi­cien­cy.
Methods. In the ­present study, we inves­ti­gat­ed their ­effects on the acti­va­tion of endo­the­lial cells by hypox­ia, a con­di­tion which mim­ics ­venous blood sta­sis.
Results. We ­observed that Ruscus ­extract was able to inhib­it the acti­va­tion of endo­the­lial cells by hypox­ia: the ­decrease in ATP con­tent, the acti­va­tion of phos­phol­i­pase A2 as well as the sub­se­quent ­increase in neu­troph­il adher­ence with a max­i­mal pro­tec­tion ­obtained at 50 µg/ml. HMC was also able to inhib­it the hypox­ia-­induced ­decrease in ATP con­tent. Furthermore, the ­effects of Ruscus ­extract and of HMC on this ­decrease seem to be addi­tive.
Conclusions. The bio­chem­i­cal mech­a­nism evi­denced in this work might ­explain some of the ben­e­fi­cial ther­a­peu­tic ­effects of these prod­ucts in the treat­ment of chron­ic ­venous insuf­fi­cien­cy ­patients.