Anti-fibrotic effect of rosmarinic acid on inhibition of pterygium epithelial cells. - GreenMedInfo Summary
Anti-fibrotic effect of rosmarinic acid on inhibition of pterygium epithelial cells.
Int J Ophthalmol. 2018 ;11(2):189-195. Epub 2018 Feb 18. PMID: 29487805
Ya-Yu Chen
AIM: To investigate the anti-fibrosis effect of rosmarinic acid (RA) in pterygium epithelial cells (PECs) to determine if RA is a potent agent for treating pterygium.
METHODS: The PECs (1×10cells/mL) were treated with 100µmol/L of RA for 1, 3 and 6h. After RA treatment, the cell viability was determined by staining with acridine orange/DAPI and analysisa NucleoCounter NC-3000. The protein expression levels of type I collagen, transforming growth factor beta-1 (TGF-β1), TGF-β type II receptor (TGF-βRII), p-Smad1/5, p-Smad2, p-Smad3, and Smad4 of the cell lysates were measured by Western blot analysis.
RESULTS: The cell viability of PECs was significantly decreased after RA treatment (<0.01). As the result, RA reduced the protein expression of type I collagen and TGF-β1 of PECs. Additionally, RA also inhibited TGF-β1/Smad signaling by decreasing the protein expressions of TGF-βRII, p-Smad1/5, p-Smad2, p-Smad3, and Smad4.
CONCLUSION: This study demonstrate that RA could inhibit fibrosis of PECs by down-regulating type I collagen expression and TGF-β1/Smad signaling. Therefore, RA is a potent therapeutic agent for the treatment of pterygium.