Pretreatment with pPolyHb attenuates H₂O₂-induced endothelial cell injury through inhibition of JNK/p38 MAPK pathway by upregulation of heme oxygenase-1

Abstract

Polymerized porcine hemoglobin (pPolyHb) exhibits a protective effect on ischemia/reperfusion of organ grafts. A series of experiments were performed to explore the underlying cytoprotective mechanisms of pPolyHb pretreatment on H₂O₂-induced cell death and apoptosis. The results showed that the pretreatment augmented heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) expression, and at the same time, decreased the phosphorylation of JNK/p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and intracellular ROS generation in H₂O₂-treated HUVECs. Moreover, the inhibition of HO-1 expression by tin porphyrin (SnPP) abolished the protective effects of pPolyHb, which suggested that the cytoprotective effect of pPolyHb involves upregulating HO-1 and subsequently decreasing the phosphorylation of the JNK and p38 MAPK and ROS generation.

Keywords::

• heme oxygenase-1
• hydrogen peroxide
• human umbilical vein endothelial cells
• JNK/p38 MAPK
• polymerized porcine hemoglobin

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Erratum

Acknowledgment

We would like to express our gratitude to Dr. Weixun Duan for his kindness in providing valuable suggestions for the experiments.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no declarations of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

We acknowledge with thanks the grants from National High-Tech R & D Program (863 Program) (Grant nos. 2012AA021902), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant nos. 81102367 and 31301405), China Scholarship Council of the Ministry of Education, as well as grants from the Shaanxi Science and Technology Department (Grant nos. 2011KTCL03-23, 2011K12-03-10 and 2012JM2009).