title: Vitexin exerts cardioprotective effect on chronic myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury in rats via inhibiting myocardial apoptosis and lipid peroxidation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to explore the cardioprotective effect of vitexin on chronic myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury in rats and potential mechanisms.
  
  
  METHODS
  A chronic myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury model was established by ligating left anterior descending coronary for 60 minutes, and followed by reperfusion for 14 days. After 2 weeks ischemia/reperfusion, cardiac function was measured to assess myocardial injury. The level of ST segment was recorded in different periods by electrocardiograph. The change of left ventricular function and myocardial reaction degree of fibrosis of heart was investigated by hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining and Sirius red staining. Endothelium-dependent relaxations due to acetylcholine were observed in isolated rat thoracic aortic ring preparation. The blood samples were collected to measure the levels of MDA, the activities of SOD and NADPH in serum. Epac1, Rap1, Bax and Bcl-2 were examined by using Western Blotting.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Vitexin exerted significant protective effect on chronic myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury, improved obviously left ventricular diastolic function and reduced myocardial reactive fibrosis degree in rats of myocardial ischemia. Medium and high-dose vitexin groups presented a significant decrease in Bax, Epac1 and Rap1 production and increase in Bcl-2 compared to the I/R group. It may be related to preventing myocardial cells from apoptosis, improving myocardial diastolic function and inhibiting lipid peroxidation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Vitexin is a cardioprotective herb, which may be a promising useful complementary and alternative medicine for patients with coronary heart disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Key Laboratory of Anti-Inflammatory and Immunopharmacology of Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Research and Development of State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Anhui Medical University Hefei 230032, China.
authors.forename: Xia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Che
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Key Laboratory of Anti-Inflammatory and Immunopharmacology of Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Research and Development of State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Anhui Medical University Hefei 230032, China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Key Laboratory of Anti-Inflammatory and Immunopharmacology of Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Research and Development of State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Anhui Medical University Hefei 230032, China.
authors.forename: Junyan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Key Laboratory of Anti-Inflammatory and Immunopharmacology of Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Research and Development of State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Anhui Medical University Hefei 230032, China.
authors.forename: Chengfeng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Key Laboratory of Anti-Inflammatory and Immunopharmacology of Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Research and Development of State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Anhui Medical University Hefei 230032, China.
authors.forename: Yilan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhen
authors.affiliation: Hefei Qi-Xing Medicine and Technology Co., Ltd Hefei 230084, Anhui, China.
authors.forename: Xu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Key Laboratory of Anti-Inflammatory and Immunopharmacology of Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Research and Development of State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Anhui Medical University Hefei 230032, China.
authors.forename: Gongliang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Key Laboratory of Anti-Inflammatory and Immunopharmacology of Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Research and Development of State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Anhui Medical University Hefei 230032, China.
authors.forename: Liuyi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dong
keywords: Epac-1; Rap-1; Vitexin; aortic rings; apoptosis; myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury