Abstract: It have observed the damage effect of Leukocyte activated by zymosan on the cultured vascular smooth muscle cell and cytoprotective activity of captopril. The result suggested that when the vascular smooth muscle cells were incubated with activated leukocytes, both lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and malondialdehyde (MDA) level in the culture medium were significantly increased as compared with the control group. If captopril was added into the culture medium, both LDHand MDA were decreased. This discovery indicated that the activated leukocytes could induce the injury of vascular smooth muscle cells, and captopril could alleviate the vascular smooth muscle cells injury. The mechanism of cytoprotective effect of captopril is correlated with the suppression of the production of oxygen-derived free radicals in certain extent.

Key words: captopril, vascular smooth muscle cell, leukocyte, cell injury, oxygen free radicals