Protective effects of choline against hypoxia-induced injuries of vessels and endothelial cells

The current study aimed to lay a theoretical foundation for further development of choline as an anti-hypoxia damage drug. Wild-type, 3- to 5-month-old male Sprague-Dawley rats, weighing 180-220 g, were used in this study. The rats were randomly divided into a normoxic control group (n=16) and a chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH) group (n=16). The effects of CIH on acetylcholine (ACh)-mediated endothelium-dependent vasodilatation in the rat cerebral basilar arterioles and mesenteric arterioles, as well as the protective effects of choline on the arterioles damaged by hypoxia were observed. Moreover, the effects of choline on endothelial cell proliferation during hypoxia were observed, and choline's functional mechanism further explored. The ACh-mediated vasodilatation of rat cerebral basilar and mesenteric arterioles significantly reduced during hypoxia (P<0.01). Choline significantly increased dilation in the rat cerebral basilar (P<0.01) and mesenteric arterioles (P<0.05) damaged by CIH compared with those in the control group. In addition, under hypoxic conditions, choline significantly promoted the proliferation of rat aortic endothelial cells (P<0.05) and significantly reduced lactate dehydrogenase activity in the cell culture supernatant in vitro (P<0.05). Furthermore, the effect of choline could be related to its ability to significantly increase the secretion of vascular endothelial growth factor (P<0.01) and activation of α7 non-neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors under hypoxia (P<0.01). This study demonstrated that choline could have protective effects against hypoxic injuries.