Salvianolic acid B(Sal B) is an active component of traditional Chinese medicine Salvia miltiorrhiza and is used to treat vascular diseases. To better understand its mechanism, the antioxidant capacities of Sal B was evaluated with human endothelial cells under oxidative stress. Human endothelial cells were pretreated with Sal B for 12 h followed by hydrogen peroxide for another 12 h. Production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPX), and concentration of glu-tathione were measured. Protective effect of Sal B on the endothelial cells from hydrogen peroxide-induced damage was observed, and ROS production in the cells was found significantly inhibited. Sal B remarkably enhanced the activities of antioxidant enzymes SOD, CAT and GPX. Furthermore, Sal B up-regulated the intracellular glu-tathione concentration. The results indicate that Sal B protected endothelial cells from oxidative stress by improving the redox status of the cells through enhancing the antioxidant enzyme activities and increasing the reductive glu-tathione concentration after the oxidative challenge.
In vitro antioxidant activities of resveratrol and piceid against peroxynitrite（ONOO-） were examined by the inhibition of 3-nitrotyrosine formation.Trolox was used as a positive control.Resveratrol and piceid exhibited high ONOO--scavenging activities in a concentration dependent manner.The antioxidant activities（the concentration of test compound required to yield a 50% inhibition of tyrosine nitration,IC 50） of resveratrol and piceid against ONOO-were（48.34±0.97） and（74.69±1.49） μmol/L,respectively.Compared with that of trolox[（105.40±1.16） μmol/L],their scavenging activities were 2.2-and 1.5-fold higher for resveratrol and piceid.Formation of nitroresveratrol as shown by UV-Vis spectroscopy and liquid chromatography-tandom mass spectrometry（LC-MS/MS） analysis indicates that resveratrol could directly scavenge ONOO-via nitration reaction.Our results demonstrate that foods and medicinal herbs with resveratrol and piceid as stronger ONOO-scavengers are valuable ingredients and have healthy application in preventing humans from peroxynitrite-mediated oxidative damage by scavenging peroxynitrite efficiently.
