Repair of Adult Mammalian Heart after Myocardial Damages by Oral Intake of Traditional Chinese Medicines

Abstract

Background: Adult mammalian heart repair after myocardial damage is highly inefficient due to the post-mitotic nature of cardiomyocytes. Interestingly, in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), there are reported effective treatments of myocardial infarction and heart failure in adult humans by oral intake of a TCM concoction named Gu Ben Pei Yuan San (GBPYS) . Methods: We fed the mice with GBPYS after myocardial damages through everyday self-feeding. We then examined the effect of everyday oral intake of GBPYS on improving cardiac function and myocardial repair in adult mice after apical resection or myocardial infarction. Findings: We found that long-term oral intake of GBPYS significantly improved cardiac function after myocardial damages in adult mice. Brdu, Phospho-histone 3, and AuroraB staining indicated increased cell proliferation at the border zone of MI after TCM feeding. GBPYS feeding reduced organ inflammation and is nontoxic to mice after long-term oral intake. Further, serum derived from TCM fed MI rats promoted division of both neonatal rat cardiomyocytes and human iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes in vitro. Interpretation: Oral intake of GBPYS improved heart repair after myocardial damages in adult mice. Our results suggest that there are substances present in GBPYS that help improve adult mammalian heart repair after MI. Funding Statement: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC No.31571527, N.S.; No.31501098, Q.L.; No.81500241, C.X.), the National Key R&D Program of China (2016YFC1000500, 2016YFC1305100), the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (No. 17XD1400300, No.17JC1400200), and the Haiju program of National Children's Medical Center EK1125180102. Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethics Approval Statement: All the protocols in this study were approved by the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (National Institutes of Health, Publication No. 85-23, Revised) and was carried out under the supervision of the Fudan University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.