title: Protective effect of saponins extract from Panax japonicus on myocardial infarction: involvement of NF-κB, Sirt1 and mitogen-activated protein kinase signalling pathways and inhibition of inflammation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Inflammation is widely acknowledged to increase morbidity and mortality in myocardial infarction (MI), and the ideal therapeutic methods should be aimed at the inflammation reaction triggers. The aim was to evaluate the protective effect of saponins extracted from Panax japonicus (SPJ) on MI, and based on these results investigate the possible involvement mechanism of the nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB), sirtuin1 (SIRT1) and mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) signalling pathways.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into sham, MI, MI + SPJ 50 and SPJ 100 mg/kg groups. After administration for 3 days, MI rats were created by ligaturing coronary artery, and then underwent the same administration for 7 days as before. Cardiac function and the expressions of pro-apoptosis protein Bax, anti-apoptosis protein Bcl-2, NF-κB, SIRT1, MAPKs signal pathway-related proteins and inflammatory factor, such as tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1), were assessed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  SPJ might significantly improve cardiac function, decrease the serum MCP-1 and TNF-α levels, ameliorate the increased Bax protein expression and decrease Bcl-2 protein expression, and suppress the protein expressions of NF-κBp65 subunit, extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) and p38 MAPK, but have no effect on c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase, and increase the expression of SIRT1. Histopathological observations provided supportive evidence for aforementioned results, and with the dose of SPJ increasing, the aforesaid improvement became more and more strong.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The studies demonstrated that SPJ exerted beneficially cardioprotective effects on MI rats, mainly inhibiting NF-κB, ERK1/2 and p38 MAPK activation, but increased the expression of SIRT1, alleviating MI injury and cardiac cell death.
authors.affiliation: College of Medical Sciences, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, China.
authors.forename: Na
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Changcheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Haibo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Zhaoqi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Guangyao
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Zhiwei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Zhiyong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Caihong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.forename: Ding
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yuan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018932:Chemokine CCL2 / Q000097:blood; D006321:Heart / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000503:physiopathology; D007249:Inflammation / Q000378:metabolism / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008026:Ligation; D008297:Male; D020928:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases / Q000378:metabolism; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D016328:NF-kappa B / Q000378:metabolism; D005894:Panax / Q000737:chemistry*; D008517:Phytotherapy; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012503:Saponins / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015398:Signal Transduction; D056564:Sirtuin 1 / Q000378:metabolism; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000097:blood; D051028:bcl-2-Associated X Protein / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: C491766:Ccl2 protein, rat; D018932:Chemokine CCL2; D016328:NF-kappa B; D010936:Plant Extracts; D012503:Saponins; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D051028:bcl-2-Associated X Protein; D020928:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases; C488368:Sirt1 protein, rat; D056564:Sirtuin 1
keywords: mitogen-activated protein kinases; myocardial infarction; nuclear factor-kappa B; saponins from Panax japonicus; sirtuin1