Experimental study of curcumol inhibiting vascular endothelial growth factor-induced neovascularization

AIM: To study the role and mechanism of curcumol in neovascularization induced by vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF).METHODS: Human umbilical vein endothelial cells were cultured in vitro and treated with 50ng/mL VEGF and curcumol at different concentrations. Cell proliferation was detected by CCK-8 and EdU assay, the migration ability of cells was analyzed by Transwell assay, the angiogenesis ability of endothelial cells was analyzed by tube formation assay, and the change of Akt/mTORC1 signal pathway was detected by Western blot.RESULTS: CCK-8 results showed that the OD450 value of cells in 400 and 800 μmol/L curcumol+VEGF group was significantly lower than that in VEGF group(all P<0.01). EdU results showed that the rate of cell proliferation in 400 μmol/L curcumol+VEGF group was significantly lower than that in VEGF group(P<0.001). Transwell assay and the formation assay results showed that the number of migratory cells in 400 μmol/L curcumol+VEGF group was decreased, and the number and length of tube branches were also reduced compared with VEGF group(all P<0.001). Western blot results showed that curcumol significantly inhibited the expression of p-Akt and p-S6, which were downstream targets of Akt/mTORC1 pathway in cells.CONCLUSION: Curcumol can inhibit VEGF-induced cell proliferation, migration and tube formation of vein endothelial cells, and has a strong inhibitory effect on angiogenesis, which can be further studied in the treatment of ocular fundus neovascularization.