In vitro and ex vivo antiangiogenic activity of Salvia officinalis

Angiogenesis is a key process in the promotion of cancer and its metastasis. Herein, the antiangiogenic activity of Salvia officinalis extract and its fractions was investigated. S. officinalis aerial parts were extracted with ethanol and its successive hexane, ethyl acetate, n-butanol and aqueous fractions were evaluated for their antiangiogenic activities using human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) capillary tube formation and rat aorta models in a three-dimensional collagen matrix. Furthermore, antimigrative effects of the fractions were assessed using a wound healing model. The ethanol extract of S. officinalis (ESO) potently inhibited capillary tube formation in HUVEC and rat aorta models of angiogenesis, and its hexane fraction (HSO) exerted the highest inhibitory effect. In addition, the ethanol extract of S. officinalis and its hexane fraction showed a dose-dependent inhibitory activity on the migration of the endothelial cells in the wound healing model. Furthermore, ESO inhibited endothelial cell proliferation at 50-200 μg/mL in a dose-dependent manner. These findings indicated some new pharmacological activities of S. officinalis such as antiangiogenic in vitro and ex vivo, and antimigrative activity in vitro. Therefore, S. officinalis could be a candidate as a useful herb with therapeutic or preventive activity against angiogenesis related disorders.