2. Academic Validation
  3. Dehydroabietic acid isolated from Commiphora opobalsamum causes endothelium-dependent relaxation of pulmonary artery via PI3K/Akt-eNOS signaling pathway

Dehydroabietic acid isolated from Commiphora opobalsamum causes endothelium-dependent relaxation of pulmonary artery via PI3K/Akt-eNOS signaling pathway

  • Molecules. 2014 Jun 23;19(6):8503-17. doi: 10.3390/molecules19068503.
Wenyan Gao 1,  Xiaoyan Dong 2,  Nan Xie 3,  Chunlan Zhou 4,  Yuhua Fan 5,  Guoyou Chen 6,  Yanming Wang 7,  Taiming Wei 8,  Daling Zhu 9
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 College of Pharmacy, Harbin Medical University-Daqing, Daqing 163319, Heilongjiang, China. gaowenyan1987@126.com.
  • 2 College of Pharmacy, Harbin Medical University-Daqing, Daqing 163319, Heilongjiang, China. remembertry@163.com.
  • 3 College of Pharmacy, Harbin University of Commerce, Harbin 150028, Heilongjiang, China. xienan2002@126.com.
  • 4 College of Pharmacy, Harbin Medical University-Daqing, Daqing 163319, Heilongjiang, China. zhouchunlan490326@163.com.
  • 5 College of Pharmacy, Harbin Medical University-Daqing, Daqing 163319, Heilongjiang, China. fyh198306@126.com.
  • 6 College of Pharmacy, Harbin Medical University-Daqing, Daqing 163319, Heilongjiang, China. cgy20050101@126.com.
  • 7 College of Pharmacy, Harbin Medical University-Daqing, Daqing 163319, Heilongjiang, China. wymingming@163.com.
  • 8 College of Pharmacy, Harbin Medical University-Daqing, Daqing 163319, Heilongjiang, China. genwy12345@126.com.
  • 9 College of Pharmacy, Harbin Medical University-Daqing, Daqing 163319, Heilongjiang, China. dalingzhu2000@163.com.
PMID: 24959678 DOI: 10.3390/molecules19068503
Abstract

Commiphora opobalsamum is a Traditional Chinese Medicine used to treat traumatic injury, mainly by relaxing blood vessels. In this study, two diterpenes, dehydroabietic acid (DA) and sandaracopimaric acid (SA) were obtained from it by a bioassay-guided approach using isolated rat pulmonary artery rings. The structures of the two compounds were elucidated by spectroscopic methods (IR, 1H- and 13C-NMR, HR-ESI-MS). Both DA and SA reduced the contraction of phenylephrine-induced pulmonary arteries in a concentration-dependent manner, and endothelium contributed greatly to the vasodilatory effect of DA. This effect of DA was attenuated by NG-Nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME, an eNOS Inhibitor). Meanwhile, DA increased nitric oxide (NO) production, along with the increase of phosphorylation level of eNOS and Akt in endothelial cells. LY294002 (a PI3K Inhibitor) could reverse this effect, which suggested the endothelial PI3K/Akt pathway involved in the mechanism underlying DA-induced relaxation of pulmonary artery. This work provided evidence of vasorelaxant substances in Commiphora opobalsamum and validated that PI3K/Akt-eNOS pathway was associated with DA-induced pulmonary artery vasodilation.

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