Abstract:

Objective: To explore the protective effect of blackberry anthocyanins against H2O2-induced oxidative stress
in human vascular vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and the underlying mechanisms. Methods: Inverted phase contrast
microscope, MTT assay, kit assay and flow cytometry were used for measuring morphological endothelial features, cell
viability, antioxidant enzyme activity and apoptotic cells, respectively. The results showed that pre-treatment with blackberry
anthocyanins at various doses had protective effect on cell morphology when compared with the damage group. Cell
morphology in the treatment group was more complete than the damage group. The viability of HUVECs was increased from
106.5% to 157.0% after pretreated with blackberry anthocyanins at a concentration ranging from 50 to 200 μg/mL. Peroxidase
(POD) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities of HUVECs pretreated with blackberry anthocyanins were significantly
enhanced. POD activity was enhanced by 50% by 200 μg/mL blackberry anthocyanins under oxidative stress. In contrast, the
early apoptosis of HUVECs was decreased from 12.96% to 5.21%, while the late apoptosis was from 18.16% to 2.01%. These
results indicated that blackberry anthocyanins could protect endothelial cell damage from H2O2 through increasing cell viability
and improving antioxidant enzyme activity to maintain the cell system balance and inhibiting cell apoptosis.

Key words: blackberry anthocyanins, human vascular vein endothelial cell, oxidative damage, apoptosis