Protective effect of scutellarin on myocardial cells treated with high glucose

Diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) is an important cause of death in patients with diabetes. DCM can be simulated by cardiomyocyte injury induced by high glucose (HG) <i>in vitro</i>. Scutellarin (Scu) is a flavonoid extracted from <i>Erigeron breviscapus</i>. The H9c2 cell line was used as an <i>in vitro</i> model in the present study to investigate the mechanism by which Scu reduces HG-induced cardiomyocyte injury. Moreover, the present study aimed to provide scientific evidence on the mechanism by which Scu prevents DCM. The following groups were used: Control, model, Scu (50/100/200/400 µM) and curcumin. Following H9c2 cell adherence, the control and model groups were treated with normal medium; the Scu group cells were treated with different concentrations of Scu, whereas the curcumin group cells were treated with 4 µM curcumin for 4 h. Subsequently, the normal group was cultured in normal medium, and the other groups were treated with medium containing 100 mM HG for 48 h. The results indicated that Scu improved the morphology of H9c2 cells treated by HG, enhanced cell proliferative activity, reduced the production of reactive oxygen species and the induction of apoptosis. Moreover, Scu promoted the expression of Bcl-2 and inhibited the expression levels of caspase-3, cleaved caspase-3, caspase-9, cleaved caspase-9, caspase-12, Bax, NADPH oxidase (Nox)2 and Nox4. The findings indicated that Scu could inhibit oxidative stress and reduce the induction of apoptosis in cardiomyocytes, thereby alleviating HG-induced myocardial injury.