Objective: The traditional Chinese medicinal puerarin, has long been used to treat cardiovascular diseases, however, the mechanism underlying its effects remain unclear. Here, this study would to investigate the role of puerarin on cardiac angiogenesis and myocardial function induced by myocardial infarction.
Methods: Puerarin was treated in rats after left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) ligation and maintained for 4 weeks (diets containing about 50 mg/kg/day or 100 mg/kg/day). After treatment, cardiac function was evaluated by echocardiography and markers of heart failure. Paraffin sections of the heart tissues were used for isolect in GS-IB4 staining. The Mrna and protein expression levels of VEGFA, Ang-1 and Ang-2 were detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction and western blot.
Results: Significantly damaged angiogenesis and slightly increase of VEGFA, Ang-1 and Ang-2 were showed after LAD ligation. Impaired angiogenesis and cardiac function were remarkably improved in puerarin treatment rats with great increase of VEGFA, Ang-1 and Ang-2.
Conclusion: The above results demonstrated that puerarin could accelerate cardiac angiogenesis and improve cardiac function of myocardial infarction rats by upregulating VEGFA, Ang-1 and Ang-2.
Keywords: Puerarin; VEGFA; angiopoietin; cardiac angiogenesis; cardiac function.