Background: Inflammation can contribute to the initiation and progression of atrial fibrillation (AF), and pinocembrin can suppress downstream inflammatory cytokine production by inhibiting the inflammation pathway. In our previous studies, pinocembrin was also beneficial in ameliorating cardiac arrhythmia in different models of rats, such as depression, myocardial infarction, and heart failure. This study aims to investigate the effect of pinocembrin on the susceptibility to AF in isoproterenol-induced rats.
Methods: Rats were randomly divided into four groups. Pinocembrin was injected through the tail vein. Isoproterenol was treated by intraperitoneal injection for one week (5 mg/kg/day). We evaluated the susceptibility to AF by atrial electrophysiological experiments. Masson staining was used to evaluate the fibrosis area. The protein levels of connexin (Cx) 40, Cav1.2, Kv4.2, collagen I, collagen III, α-SMA, transforming growth factor (TGF)-β, NLRP3, caspase 1, and interleukin (IL)-1β were detected by western blot.
Results: Our data demonstrated that pinocembrin could prolong the atrial effective refractory period (ERP) and action potential duration (APD), and decrease AF inducibility. Isoproterenol increased the expression of Cav1.2 and Kv4.2 ion channels whereas pinocembrin could alleviate this change. Pinocembrin could reduce the fibrosis area, fibrosis-related protein collagen I, collagen III, α-SMA, and TGF-β and upregulate gap junction protein Cx40. In addition, pinocembrin reduced the expression of NLRP3, caspase 1, and IL-1β.
Conclusions: Our study indicated that pinocembrin was beneficial to alleviate atrial electrical remodeling and fibrosis. Accompanied the downregulation of ion channels and upregulation of gap junction protein Cx40. Pinocembrin may produce these effects by inhibiting the NLRP3 pathway.
Keywords: Atrial electrical remodeling; Atrial fibrillation; Inflammation; Isoproterenol.
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