Objective: To investigate the effects of a Chinese herbal formula for calming liver and suppressing yang on the protein expressions of vascular tissues in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs), and to explore the mechanism of efficacy.
Methods: Twenty SHRs were randomly divided into model group and treatment group. Another 10 Wistar-Kyoto rats were selected as a normal control. SHRs in the treatment group were administered with the formula for calming liver and suppressing Yang for 4 weeks. During the course of treatment, blood pressure and heart rates were monitored every week and the ethology of rats, including irritability and rotation endurance was also evaluated. After treatment, thoracic aorta was obtained and its proteins were separated by 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE). The differentially expressed proteins were identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) and database query.
Results: The formula for calming liver and suppressing yang not only decreased the systolic blood pressure and heart rate, but also improved irritability degree and rotation endurance time of SHRs. This experiment had established the 2-DE graph of protein expressions of vascular tissues in SHRs. Compared with the normal group, the expressions of 15 proteins were down-regulated, and 12 proteins were up-regulated in vascular tissues of the model group. The formula for calming liver and suppressing yang treatment up-regulated expressions of 10 proteins in the 15 down-regulated proteins, and down-regulated 8 proteins in the 12 up-regulated proteins in vascular tissues of SHRs. After analysis, 16 obviously differentially expressed proteins were found, and 13 of them were identified.
Conclusion: The formula for calming liver and suppressing yang can improve the ethology of SHRs. The mechanism is probably concerned with regulating the protein expressions of vascular tissues.