Temporal effect of Guanxin No. 2 on cardiac function, blood viscosity and angiogenesis in rats after long-term occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery.
OBJECTIVE
Cardiac infarction is one of the main causes of death in both developing and developed countries over past decades. Currently available approaches for treating patients with this disease are not satisfactory. Traditional Chinese medicines have been increasingly paid attention to. The aim of this study was to characterize the dynamic protective effects of Guanxin No. 2 decoction (GX II) on cardiac dysfunction combined with the blood viscosity and myocardial hypertrophy parameters in myocardial infarction (MI) rats.


METHODS
Male Sprague-Dawley rats (180-200 g) were randomly divided into three groups: sham-operated, coronary artery ligation (CAL), and CAL plus GX II (GX II, 10.0 g raw materials/kg/d, bid, p.o.). The experiment was carried out at 4 time points as the 3rd, 7th, 14th, and 28th day after ligation.


RESULTS
It was found that on the one hand, GX II could significantly improve the heart function, and remarkably decrease infarct size and inhibit ventricular remodeling. On the other hand, GX II showed some unique effects such as angiogenesis which was induced in the left ventricular tissue. This result was consistent with the finding of an augmented vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression in this area.


CONCLUSIONS
The studies demonstrated that GX II exerted extensively beneficial cardioprotective effect on CAL rats, it might stimulate angiogenesis of ischemic region to compensate blood supply to the heart via upregulated VEGF expression.
Zeng
Xiaowei
X
College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, PR China.
He
Haibo
H
Yang
Jun
J
Yang
Xianzhe
X
Wu
Limao
L
Yu
Jun
J
Li
Lianda
L
D000818:Animals; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects; D001809:Blood Viscosity / Q000187:drug effects*; D006332:Cardiomegaly / Q000188:drug therapy; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006321:Heart / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000188:drug therapy; D019255:NADPH Oxidases / Q000502:physiology; D018919:Neovascularization, Physiologic / Q000187:drug effects*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis; D051381:Rats; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000235:genetics
D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A; D019255:NADPH Oxidases