Icariin, a plant-derived flavonoid, has multiple beneficial actions on the cardiovascular system. The current study investigated whether icariin postconditioning has any protective effects on myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in vivo and its potential cardioprotective mechanisms. In in vivo rat model of myocardial ischemia/reperfusion, we found that postconditioning with icariin significantly reduced myocardial infarct size, serum level of TNF-α and IL-10, TNF-α and IL-10 expression, and apoptosis. Moreover, our results showed that icariin postconditioning exerts cardioprotective effect against myocardial I/R injury through activating PI3K/Akt using PI3K/Akt inhibitor LY294002.
Keywords: Icariin; Myocardial ischemia/reperfusion; PI3K/Akt.