title: Cardio-protecteffect of qiliqiangxin capsule on left ventricular remodeling, dysfunction and apoptosis in heart failure rats after chronic myocardial infarction.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Qiliqiangxin (QL) capsule is a traditional Chinese medicine which has been approved for the treatment of chronic heart failure. Evidences proved that QL capsules further reduced the NT-proBNP levels and improved left ventricular ejection fraction in CHF patients but the evidence supporting its underlying mechanism is still unclear.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Myocardial infarction (MI) -Heart failure (HF) Sprague-Dawley ratsmodel and neonatal rat cardiac myocytes (NRCMs) were used. Animals were assigned into 4 groups, normal group (n=6), shame-operation group (n=6), MI rats 4 weeks after left anterior descending coronary artery ligation were randomized into vehicle group (n=8), QL group (n=8). QL significantly attenuated cardiac dysfunction and ventricle remodeling as echocardiography and hemodynamic measurements showed improvement in left ventricular ejection fraction, fractional shortening, ±dp/dt and left ventricular end diastolic and systolic diameters in QL treated group compared with the vehicle group. Improvements ininterstitial fibrosisand mitochondrial structures were also exhibited by Sirius Red staining, RT-PCR and electron microscopy. QL treatment improved apoptosis and VEGF expression in rats marginal infract area. Complementary experiments analyzed the improved apoptosis and up-regulate of VEGF in ischemia-hypoxia cultivated NRCMs is in an Akt dependent manner and can be reversed by Akt inhibitor.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  QL capsule can improve cardiac dysfunction and ventricular remodeling in MI-HF ratsmodel, this cardiac protective efficacy may be concerned with attenuated apoptosis and cardiac fibrosis. Up-regulated VEGF expression and Akt phosphorylation may take part in this availability.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure Center, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College Beijing 10037, China.
authors.forename: Tuo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure Center, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College Beijing 10037, China.
authors.forename: Yuhui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure Center, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College Beijing 10037, China.
authors.forename: Shijie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure Center, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College Beijing 10037, China.
authors.forename: Tianyi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gan
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure Center, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College Beijing 10037, China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: An
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure Center, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College Beijing 10037, China.
authors.forename: Rongcheng
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure Center, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College Beijing 10037, China.
authors.forename: Yunhong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure Center, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College Beijing 10037, China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure Center, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College Beijing 10037, China.
authors.forename: Qiong
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure Center, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College Beijing 10037, China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
keywords: Qiliqiangxin; VEGF; cardiac dysfunction; cardiac fibrosis; heart failure; myocardial infarction