Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Aug 28, 2015; 21(32): 9566-9576
Published online Aug 28, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i32.9566
Carvedilol may attenuate liver cirrhosis by inhibiting angiogenesis through the VEGF-Src-ERK signaling pathway
Qian Ding, Xiang-Guo Tian, Yan Li, Qi-Zhi Wang, Chun-Qing Zhang
Qian Ding, Xiang-Guo Tian, Yan Li, Qi-Zhi Wang, Chun-Qing Zhang, Department of Gastroenterology, Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University, Jinan 250021, Shandong Province, China
Author contributions: Ding Q performed the majority of the experiments; Tian XG, Li Y and Wang QZ provided vital reagents and analytical tools and edited the manuscript; Ding Q and Zhang CQ designed the study and wrote the manuscript.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81370590.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interest related to the manuscript.
Data sharing statement: No additional unpublished data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Chun-Qing Zhang, PhD, Department of Gastroenterology, Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University, 324 Jingwu Weiqi Road, Jinan 250021, Shandong Province, China. zhchqing@medmail.com.cn
Telephone: +86-531-66953227 Fax: +86-531-87906348
Received: March 30, 2015
Peer-review started: March 31, 2015
First decision: April 23, 2015
Revised: May 15, 2015
Accepted: July 8, 2015
Article in press: July 9, 2015
Published online: August 28, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: Carvedilol has been used for the treatment of portal hypertension for many years. In this study, carvedilol directly inhibited the proliferation and tube formation of cultured human umbilical vascular endothelial cells. Moreover, this study is the first to investigate the mechanism of the anti-angiogenic effect of carvedilol, which functions by inhibiting vascular endothelial growth factor-induced mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathways. These novel activities of carvedilol provide insight into the anti-angiogenic mechanisms involved, and highlight its potential therapeutic application against angiogenesis-dependent liver fibrosis.