Evaluation of Qualea grandiflora Mart effect on HIF-1alpha and MMP-14 modulation in cell lines of pre-osteoblasts and fibroblasts

The vegetable specie Qualea grandiflora (QG), popularly known as pau-ferro, pauterra- da-folha-grande, pau-terra or pau-de-tucano, very common in the Brazilian Cerrado, is well known due to its varied therapeutic properties. Its indications include preventive actions in the appearance of lesions of gastric mucosa, analgesic, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and antifungal effects. Thus, QG components could have some action on molecules widely involved in angiogenic and developmental / repair processes, such as Matrix metalloproteinase 14 (MMP-14) and Hypoxia- Inducible Factor-1 (HIF-1alpha). Thus, the objective of our study was to investigate the effects of QG hydroalcoholic extract on cell viability and expression of MMP-14 and HIF-1alpha in NIH/3T3 fibroblasts and MC3T3-E1 pre-osteoblasts cell lines. For the cell viability assay and expression of the molecules, concentrations of 0.1; 1.0 and 10 g / mL of the hydroalcoholic extract of leaves of QG, were administered for periods of 24, 48, 72 and 96h. After each period, the cell viability was evaluated by MTT assay and the expression of the molecules was analyzed using the immunofluorescence technique. The results show that the QG extract does not promote reduction of the cellular viability of fibroblasts and pre-osteoblasts in concentrations up to 10 g/mL in the initial periods (24 and 48h). However, a significant reduction in viability can be observed in 72h and 96h for fibroblasts and 96h for pre-osteoblasts exposed to the highest extract concentration (10 g/mL). The immunofluorescence assay indicates that the extract, at concentrations of 0.1; 1.0 and 10 g/mL was able to increase the expression of MMP-14 and HIF-1alpha in both cell types. In conclusion, our results indicate that the QG extract exerts an effect capable of increasing the expression of the two molecules under study (MMP-14 and HIF-1alpha) both for the NIH/3T3 fibroblasts as well as for the MC3T3-E1 pre-osteoblasts cells. Thus, the QG compounds could have potential to be used as angiogenesis modulating therapeutic agents, by increasing the expression of MMP-14 and HIF-1alpha. (AU)