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    Study of effect of tetramethylpyrazine on promoting recovery of bone marrow microenvironment of vascular endothelial growth factor/fetal liver kinase-1 pathways in mice with radiation injury

    SUN Lan, LIU Wen-li, SUN Han-ying, XU Hui-zhen, LU Wu

    Department of Hematology, The First Hospital Affiliated to Wenzhou Medical College, Wenzhou 325000, Zhejiang, China

    OBJECTIVE： To evaluate the effect of tetramethylpyrazine on the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) in mice with radiation injury and its significance. METHODS： The protein expression of VEGF in BMSCs was assayed by Western blot, each paraffin embedded section was stained with anti-fetal liver kinase-1(flk-1); and the cell cycle and apoptosis rate of BMSCs were tested by flow cytometer (FCM). The effect of tetramethylpyrazine on the hematopoiesis was evaluated at the same time. RESULTS：The expression levels of VEGF in BMSCs and flk-1 in bone marrow tissue decreased significantly after radiation and increased slowly afterwards. The value in tetramethylpyrazine group almost reached normal level, while it remained lower in control group on 14 th day. After ⁶⁰Co rayirradiation, the BMSCs were arrested in G0/G1 phase, apoptosis rate increased significantly. These values recovered slowly with the time and remained higher than those in normal group on 14 th day. The recovery of these values in tetramethylpyrazine-treated group was sooner than those in radiation group, and they almost reached the normal levels on 14 th day. The condition in the hematoxylin and eosin (HE) stained bone marrow section also suggested that the recovery of hematopoiesis in tetramethylpyrazine-treated group was sooner than that in the control group. CONCLUSION： The tetramethylpyrazine can enhance the expression of VEGF in BMSCs, and improve bone marrow microenvironment through VEGF/flk1 pathways. This may be one of the mechanisms of tetramethylpyrazine to promote recovery of hematopoiesis after radiation. ......