Basic & Clinical Medicine ›› 2025, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (7): 882-888.doi: 10.16352/j.issn.1001-6325.2025.07.0882

• Original Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Angiopoietin-like protein 8 promotes apoptosis of vascular smooth muscle cells through activating p53 signaling pathway

YU Huahui, DU Zhiyong, JIAO Xiaolu, LYU Qianwen, YANG Yunyun, HAN Lijie, QIN Yanwen*   

  1. Beijing Institute of Heart Lung and Blood Vessel Disease,Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100029, China
  • Received:2025-04-23 Revised:2025-05-21 Online:2025-07-05 Published:2025-06-24
  • Contact: *qinyanwen@126.com

Abstract: Objective To investigate the mechanism by which angiopoietin-like protein 8 (ANGPTL8) regulates vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMCs) apoptosis. Methods An in vitro abdominal aortic aneurysm cell model was established by stimulating human VSMCs(HUSMCs) with angiotensin Ⅱ (AngⅡ). Stable ANGPTL8 knockdown and over-expression VSMC cell strains were generated using lentiviral transfection. TUNEL staining was used to detect apoptosis. Western blot analysis was performed to measure the protein expression of ANGPTL8, caspase9, caspase3, Bcl-2, Bax, p53, and PUMA, while RT-qPCR was used to assess mRNA expression of ANGPTL8, Bcl-2 and Bax. Results AngⅡ significantly induced ANGPTL8 expression in HVSMCs in a time- and dose-dependent manner(P<0.05). ANGPTL8 knockdown significantly reduced the expression of apoptosis-related proteins caspase9, caspase3, and Bax, while increased the expression of the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2(P<0.05). Conversely, ANGPTL8 over-expression markedly induced HVSMCs apoptosis, which was significantly suppressed by treatment with the p53 pathway inhibitor pifithrin-α (PFT-α). Conclusions ANGPTL8 may promote VSMC apoptosis by activation of p53 signaling pathway.

Key words: angiopoietin-like proteins 8, vascular smooth muscle cells, apoptosis, p53 pathway

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