[Protective effect of losartan on endothelial cells exposed to high glucose levels in vitro]
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 7, 2026
A Microfluidic System for Modeling Endothelial Dysfunction under Combined Physiological Pulsatile Shear Stress and Oscillatory Hyperglycemia
Published on: May 12, 2026
Yi-ping Li1, Ying-nan Wang, Hong Deng
1Department of Pathology, School of Basic Medical Science, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China.
Objective:
To investigate the effect of losartan (an angiotensin II type I receptor antagonist) on endothelial cells exposed to high glucose in vitro and related mechanism.
Methods:
Vascular endothelial cells of human umbilical vein were cultured in media with high glucose levels. The activities of SOD and CAT, the level of MDA were measured by spectrophotometry in the conditioned media of endothelial cells, the VEGF mRNA expression was performed using semi-quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) in the cell lysates, and the protein expression of VEGF was examined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in the supernatants of cultured cells.
Result:
When endothelial cells were cultured in high glucose, the activities of SOD and CAT were significantly decreased, but the level of MDA was markedly increased. However, the high glucose-induced effects were inhibited by losartan. The application of high glucose upregulated the mRNA and protein expression of VEGF in endothelial cells, which was also attenuated by losartan.
Conclusion:
High glucose disrupts the oxidative equilibrium and increases the expression of VEGF in endothelial cells, which can be inhibited by losartan.
