Puerarin pretreatment inhibits myocardial apoptosis and improves cardiac function in rats after acute myocardial infarction through the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway
Feng Chen, Zhiqing Chen, He Wang, Ji-Jin Zhu
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Puerarin demonstrates a protective effect in many cardiovascular diseases. However, the role of puerarin in acute myocardial infarction (AMI)-induced injury and the exact molecular mechanisms are not fully understood. OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether puerarin pretreatment improves cardiac function and to study the mechanism of action of puerarin. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Thirty rats were grouped into sham group, AMI group and AMI+puerarin (PUE) group at random (n = 10 per group). Except for the sham group, a model of AMI was established via left anterior descending artery ligation. The PUE group received puerarin 120 mg/(kg × day) for 7 days before the operation. Echocardiography was used for evaluation of cardiac function in rats and TUNEL staining for measuring myocardial apoptosis. The expression levels of p-PI3K, t-Akt, p-Akt, Bax, Bcl-2, and cleaved caspase-3 proteins were measured with western blot. RESULTS: Compared to the sham group, the AMI group demonstrated poor cardiac function and decreased p-PI3K, p-Akt and Bcl-2 proteins levels, while Bax, cleaved caspase-3, and myocardial apoptosis levels increased. Compared with the AMI group, the PUE group showed significant improvement in cardiac function and increased protein expression of p-PI3K, p-Akt and Bcl-2, while Bax and cleaved caspase-3 levels decreased and myocardial apoptosis was attenuated. CONCLUSIONS: Puerarin pretreatment in AMI can effectively improve cardiac function by inhibiting myocardial apoptosis. The molecular mechanism of this protective effect may be mediated by activating the PI3K/Akt pathway in cardiomyocytes.