Protective effects of salvia miltiorrhiza and ligustrazine injection preconditioning on ischemia-reperfusion injury of rat

Abstract

Objective To investigate the protective effect of salvia miltiorrhiza ligustrazine injection (SLI) pretreatment on myocardial cells after myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury in rats and its potential mechanism. Methods Thirty health male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into three groups, Sham group (Sham), myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury model group (I/R), salvia miltiorrhiza ligustrazine treatment group (I/R+ SLI). Except Sham group, myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury models were established in vivo in rats. The pathological changes of electrocardiogram (ECG) in each group of rats were observed and the myocardial infarction area was measured well. The apoptosis of myocardial cells was detected by TUNEL. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to determine the mRNA expression levels of apoptosis-related genes B cell lymphoma/leukemia-2 (bcl-2), bcl-2 associated X protein (bax) and cysteinyl aspartate-specific protease (Caspase)-3. Statisticalanalysis of data using the statistical product and service solutions 19.0 software. Results Compared with I/R group, ECG waveform in I/R+ SLI group is obviously improved, ST segment changes are reduced, and waveform is close to normal. Myocardial infarction area (32.14±3.09) and myocardial cell apoptosis index (19.09±13.91) were decreased significantly (t=10.684, t=9.012, P< 0.01). The expression level of bcl-2 mRNA (4.52±0.50) in myocardial cells was significantly increased (t=19.834, P<0.01), while the expression levels of bax and Caspase-3 mRNA (2.73±0.29, 3.00±0.36) were significantly decreased, with significant differences (t=10.976, 14.936, P<0.01). Conclusion SLI can effectively reduce myocardial injury induced by myocardial ischemia-reperfusion and has certain protective effect on cardiac function. Its mechanism may be related to inhibiting myocardial cell apoptosis. Key words: Salvia miltiorrhiza ligustrazine; Myocardial ischemia/Reperfusion; Apoptosis