Abstract
Endothelial cells (ECs) are vital regulators of inflammatory processes, there is the potential for inhibition of EC inflammation to be a therapeutic target in chronic inflammatory diseases. This study aimed to investigate the effect of 7-methoxyisoflavone (7-Mif) on endothelial inflammation. Our results showed that 7-Mif have no cytotoxicity on HUVECs. Pretreatment with 5 μM, 10 μM and 50 μM 7-Mif significantly reduced IL-1β-induced ICAM-1 (28.1% ± 4.1%, 25.9 ± 2.5% and 32.0% ± 3.2%, respectively) and VCAM-1 (48.0% ± 5.6%, 40.1 ± 3.1% and 39.6% ± 3.1%, respectively) mRNA expression. And pretreatment with 10 μM and 50 μM 7-Mif significantly reduced IL-1β-induced ICAM-1 (45.1% ± 4.4% and 33.6 ± 4.4%, respectively) and VCAM-1 (53.0% ± 3.7% and 53.7 ± 5.1%, respectively) protein levels. Furthermore, pretreatment with 50 μM 7-Mif inhibited monocyte-endothelial cell adhesion (50.2% ± 4.2%). Mechanistically, our results showed that 7-Mif reversed IL-1β-induced NF-κB activation and p65 translocation to the nucleus, therefore inhibiting endothelial cell inflammation. In addition, we confirmed that 7-Mif 10 mg/kg and 20 mg/kg reduced LPS-induced ICAM-1 (47.3% ± 1.3% and 39.0% ± 3.2%, respectively) and VCAM-1 (56.5 ± 2.8% and 47.8 ± 4.3%, respectively) expression and attenuated inflammatory injury in mice. In conclusion, we showed the inhibitory effect of 7-Mif on endothelial inflammation by suppressing the expression of endothelial adhesion molecules and monocyte adhesion. Our data illustrated that 7-Mif could positively regulate the process of endothelial inflammation.