Abstract

The objective of this research was to describe the effect of Vaccinium floribundum (VF) Kunth, a wild ber-ry species of Ericaceae family growing in Ecuador’s Andean highlands, commonly known as mortiño, on of porcine Vascular Wall Mesenchymal Stem Cells (pVW-MSCs). In particular way, due to the protective ef-fects of several natural compound, the aim of the research was to investigate the effect of VF microen-capsulated (VFM) on in vitro model of toxicity induced by serum deficiency (DMEM 1% FBS 1%). Viability of the cells was tested after culture for 24h with different doses of VFM doses (VFM 1ug/ml VFM 10ug/ml; VFM 100ug/ml; VFM 1mg/ml; VFM 5 mg/ml; VFM 10 mg/ml; VFM 50 mg/ml) added to standard culture condition (DMEM 1% FBS 5%). Then pVW-MSCs were cultured in a model of culture with serum deficiency (DMEM 1% 1%FBS), with VFM 1mg/ml for 24hs in order to evaluate the viability and the gene expression by qPCR Real Time of following genes: BAX (BCL2 associated X, apoptosis regulator Simbolo), BCL2l1 (BCL2 like 1), CASP3 (Caspase 3) and TP53 (tumor protein p53). The reference genes used on PCR Real Time were GAPDH (Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase) and β-ACT (β Actin). Our results showed that the VFM doses staring from 1mg/ml to 50mg/ml increase the viability in respect to the con-trol (no FVM) (see data set sheet 1: VFM_ pVWMSCs_Viability_25032026.csv). Regarding the viability on in vitro model with serum deficiency, our data showed a decreasing of viability in respect to the standard culture condition on the contrary, the addition of VFM restore the viability like standard culture condition (see data set: VFM_ pVWMSCs_Viability_LowSerum_25032026.csv). Finally, the gene expression study showed only a significant statistical downregulation of caspase 3, suggesting a protective role of VFM on apoptosis mechanism (see data set VFM_pVWMSCs_qPCR_14012026.csv).