Angiogenic effects of the extracts from Chinese herbs: Angelica and Chuanxiong.
Angelica and ChuanXiong are used to cure ischemic heart disease in China. Previous studies found that these two herbs could increase myocardial blood flow, oxygen-supply and keep myocardial oxygen balance, etc. However, the mechanisms of angiogenic effects of these two herbs are not well-known. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of Angelica and ChuanXiong on vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression in rat myocardial infarction, on endothelial cell proliferation and quantity of vessels on chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane (CAM). In this study, rats were divided randomly into either pre-treatment or acute-treatment group and sacrificed at the end of the treatments. VEGF expression using Western blot analysis was significantly increased in the groups pre-treated with ChuanXiong and Angelica when compared to the control group (p < 0.05). There was significant increase in VEGF expression in the rats treated acutely with Angelica (p < 0.05). In the contrary, the rats treated with ChuanXiong showed a decrease in VEGF expression when compared to the acute-treatment control group (p < 0.05). Similar results were observed in immunohistochemistry of VEGF expression in the myocardia. Our study also demonstrated that these two herbs significantly enhanced endothelial cell proliferation (p < 0.05) and revascularity in CAM (p < 0.05). The data showed that Angelica and ChuanXiong could affect VEGF expression in rat myocardial infarction, promote endothelial cell proliferation and stimulate quantity of vessels on CAM model. The results suggest that Angelica and ChuanXiong have angiogenic effects, and may provide some mechanisms for the treatment of myocardial infarction and peripheral ischemia.
Meng
Hua
H
Department of Physiology, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an 710032, China.
Guo
Jun
J
Sun
Ji-Yuan
JY
Pei
Jian-Ming
JM
Wang
Yue-Min
YM
Zhu
Miao-Zhang
MZ
Huang
Chen
C
D029971:Angelica sinensis; D000818:Animals; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D002642:Chick Embryo; D049033:Chorioallantoic Membrane / Q000098:blood supply; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000494:pharmacology*; D042783:Endothelial Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D030004:Ligusticum; D008297:Male; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000378:metabolism; D018919:Neovascularization, Physiologic / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D014471:Umbilical Veins / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000378:metabolism
D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A; C044613:angelicae sinensis extract; C101574:chuangxiong extract