Shen-Fu injection preconditioning inhibits myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury in diabetic rats: activation of eNOS via the PI3K/Akt pathway

J Biomed Biotechnol. 2011:2011:384627. doi: 10.1155/2011/384627. Epub 2010 Nov 29.

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate whether Shen-fu injection (SFI), a traditional Chinese medicine, could attenuate myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (MI/R) injury in diabetes. Streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats were randomly assigned to the Sham, I/R, SFI preconditioning, and SFI plus wortmannin (a phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitor) groups. After the treatment, hearts were subjected to 30 min of coronary artery occlusion and 2 h reperfusion except the Sham group. Myocardial infarct size and cardiomyocytes apoptosis were increased significantly in MI/R group as compared with the Sham group. SFI preconditioning significantly decreased infarct size, apoptosis, caspase-3 protein expression, MDA level in myocardial tissues, and plasma level of CK and LDH but increased p-Akt, p-eNOS, bcl-2 protein expression, and SOD activity compared to I/R group. Moreover, SFI-induced cardioprotection was abolished by wortmannin. We conclude that SFI preconditioning protects diabetic hearts from I/R injury via PI3K/Akt-dependent pathway.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Analysis of Variance
  • Animals
  • Apoptosis / drug effects
  • Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental / metabolism*
  • Drugs, Chinese Herbal / administration & dosage
  • Drugs, Chinese Herbal / pharmacology*
  • Enzyme Activation / drug effects
  • Hemodynamics / drug effects
  • Histocytochemistry
  • In Situ Nick-End Labeling
  • Ischemic Preconditioning, Myocardial / methods
  • Male
  • Myocardial Infarction / pathology
  • Myocardial Reperfusion Injury / metabolism
  • Myocardial Reperfusion Injury / prevention & control*
  • Nitric Oxide Synthase Type III / metabolism*
  • Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase / metabolism*
  • Phosphorylation / drug effects
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt / metabolism*
  • Rats
  • Rats, Sprague-Dawley
  • Signal Transduction / drug effects

Substances

  • Drugs, Chinese Herbal
  • Shen-Fu
  • Nitric Oxide Synthase Type III
  • Nos3 protein, rat
  • Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt