Effects of Chumash Medicinal Plant Extracts on Cell Proliferation and Gene Expression

BSC-Ursa Minor 72

Angiogenesis is the biological process of new blood vessel growth from endothelial cells, and it is an essential part of the wound-healing process. In this study, extracts of the Southern Californian native plants Red shanks (Adenostoma sparsifolium), bedstraw (Galium angustifolium), and the alkaloid extract of Jimson weed (Datura wrightii) were tested for their angiogenic effects on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). These effects were investigated by treating HUVECs with each extract and measuring cellular proliferation and nitric oxide production. In addition, Red shanks extract was tested using a total phenolic content assay as well as qRT-PCR. Red shanks and Jimson weed increased proliferation at concentrations of 10 ng/μL and 1 ng/μL with no significant effect for the bedstraw extract. No changes in nitric oxide production for any sample were measured. Additionally, Red shanks was found to contain large amounts of polyphenols with 11.8 mg GAE/g bark, and changes in expression of the genes vegfr2 and mmp9 were measured by qRT-PCR and suggested that proliferation may be induced by these plant extracts outside of the nitric oxide-mediated proliferative signals.