Abstract:Objective To investigate the effect of ulinastatin on hypoxia-induced injury in PC12 nerve cells and its molecular mechanism.Methods PC12 cells were divided into control group, hypoxia group, hypoxia+low/middle/high-dose ulinastatin groups, hypoxia+miR-NC group, hypoxia+miR-190 group, hypoxia+ulinastatin+anti-miR-NC group, and hypoxia+ulinastatin+anti-miR-190 group. Related kits were used to measure the leakage rate of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in the culture medium and the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and the content of malondialdehyde (MDA) in cells; flow cytometry was used to measure cell apoptosis; Western blotting was used to measure protein expression; quantitative real-time PCR was used to measure the expression of miR-190.Results Compared with the hypoxia group, the hypoxia+low/middle/high-dose ulinastatin groups had significant reductions in LDH leakage rate, MDA content, and cell apoptosis rate and a significant increase in SOD activity, as well as significant increases in the relative expression of Bcl-2 and miR-190 and a significant reduction in the relative expression of Bax, in a dose-dependent manner (all P<0.05). After miR-190 overexpression, there was a significant reduction in LDH leakage rate, a significant increase in SOD activity, significant reductions in MDA content and cell apoptosis rate, a significant increase in the relative expression of Bcl-2, and a significant reduction in the relative expression of Bax (all P<0.05). Inhibition of the expression of miR-190 reversed the effect of ulinastatin on hypoxia-induced injury of PC12 cells.Conclusions Ulinastatin can exert a protective effect against hypoxia-induced injury of PC12 nerve cells possibly by upregulating the expression of miR-190.