Effects of an angelica extract on human erythrocyte aggregation, deformation and osmotic fragility.

In Chinese traditional medicine, angelica is widely used for its known clinical effects of ameliorating blood microcirculation. But the mechanism of these beneficial effects still remains unclear. In this work the rheological behaviour of human erythrocytes treated by angelica was studied in vitro. Normal RBCs incubated with an angelica extract at different concentrations (5, 10 or 20 mg/ml) for 60 min at 37 degrees C and then their aggregation, deformation and osmotic fragility were measured with different recently developed optical techniques, namely Erythroaggregometer (Regulest, Florange, France), LORCA (Mechatronics, Amsterdam) and Fragilimeter (Regulest, Florange, France). Experimental results show that angelica (20 mg/ml) significantly decreased normal RBCs' aggregation speed (p<0.01) and could inhibit the hyperaggregability caused by dextran 500. However, the strength of normal RBCs aggregates were not influenced by angelica. When a calcium ionophore A23187 (1.9 microM) was used to harden cell membrane, angelica (20 mg/ml) could significantly (p<0.01) protect erythrocytes against the loss of their deformability even it had no effects on normal RBCs deformation. Finally angelica (5 and 10 mg/ml) decreased significantly (p<0.01) normal RBCs osmotic fragility. In conclusion angelica plays a rheologically active role on human erythrocytes, and this study suggests a possible mechanism for angelica's positive effects against certain cardiovascular diseases.

[Protective effect of Angelica on ECV(304) from injury induced by hyperlipidemic serum in vitro].

The aim of this article was to examine the protective effect of Chinese traditional medicine Angelica on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs, ECV(304)) from injury induced by hyperlipidemic serum (HLS) and to study the underlying mechanisms. Microstructures of HUVECs were observed by a scanning electron microscope. Spectrophotometer and immunocytochemical methods were used to detect the content of NO in the suspension and expression of ICAM-1, TGFbeta(1), bFGF on the cell surface, respectively. After being incubated with HLS for 24 hours, HUVECs exhibited pronounced morphological changes, such as disappearance of microvilli on the endothelial cell (EC) surface, rupture of cell membranes, etc. Expression of ICAM-l and bFGF in ECs was significantly increased, while expression of TGFbeta(1) and the release of NO from ECs were significantly decreased. All these effects of HLS on ECs can be reversed by Angelica significantly. The above effects of Angelica may be related to its anti-atherosclerotic action.