title: Effect of oriental herbal prescription Guan-Xin-Er-Hao on coronary flow in healthy volunteers and antiapoptosis on myocardial ischemia-reperfusion in rat models.
abstract: Ischemic heart disease (IHD) is the main cause of death and a major public health problem in the world. The traditional herbal medicinal formula Guan-Xin-Er-Hao (GXEH) has been used in China and East Asia for the treatment of coronary heart disease, however, the underlying cardioprotection mechanisms remain unclear. To make clear the antiischemic mechanism involved, GXEH was orally administered to 15 healthy volunteers. Heart rates (HR), blood pressure and coronary flow (CF) velocity before and 1 h after a single oral dose of GXEH were observed and compared. It was demonstrated that the oral administration of GXEH increased CF acutely in a dose-dependent manner without modification of systemic hemodynamic parameters. Moreover, the myocardial protection function of GXEH was also experimentally examined in ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) rat models. Apoptosis was measured quantitatively by the terminal transferase UTP nick end-labeling (TUNEL) method and confirmed by caspase-3 activity. The infarct size and TUNEL-positive cells of GXEH-treated group (20 g/kg) were reduced significantly, which was consistent with the decreased caspase-3 activity. These suggest that GXEH protects hearts from ischemia injury by increasing CF and reduces infarct size by inhibiting myocardial apoptosis.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Ethnopharmacology and Department of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: Jianlei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Xi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Wenfu
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Zhihua
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xing
authors.forename: Xinqiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Zhengyan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Yonggang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects*; D053148:Caspase 3 / Q000378:metabolism; D003326:Coronary Circulation / Q000187:drug effects*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006439:Hemodynamics / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015428:Myocardial Reperfusion Injury / Q000188:drug therapy*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D016037:Single-Blind Method
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; C534196:guan xin II; C505410:Casp3 protein, rat; D053148:Caspase 3