A Study of the Cardioprotective Effect of Breviscapine During Hypoxia of Cardiomyocytes in vitro and During Myocardial Infarction in vivo

Abstract

Breviscapine is a flavonoid extracted from Erigeron breviscapus. Hand.-Mazz, and it has been reported that breviscapine can activate K⁺ channels and block Ca²⁺ channels. In this paper, we studied the cardioprotective effects of breviscapine on electrocardiogram (ECG) changes (ST-segment elevation), infarction size in dog heart subjected to myocardial infarction caused by left coronary artery ligation and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) leakage, changes of intracellular free Ca²⁺ levels, apoptosis and necrosis in cultured neonatal rat cardiomyocytes subjected to hypoxia. Additionally, the effect of breviscapine on myocardial oxygen consumption was detected in dog myocardium in vitro. The results showed that breviscapine treatment (1 mg/kg, 2 mg/kg and 4 mg/kg) significantly reduced ST-segment elevation and infarction size in hearts subjected to myocardial infarction, that breviscapine treatment (14.29 μg/mL, 28.57 μg/mL and 57.14 μg/mL) significantly decreased oxygen consumption in myocardium, and that breviscapine treatment (5 μg/mL, 10 μg/mL and 20 μg/mL) significantly reduced LDH leakage, intracellular free Ca²⁺ levels, apoptosis and necrosis in cardiomyocytes subjected to hypoxia. In conclusion, the present study indicates that breviscapine is in favor of myocardial protection.

Abbreviations

Brdu:bromodeoxyuridine

DMEM:Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium

ECG:electrocardiogram

FITC:fluorescein isothiocyanate

LDH:lactate dehydrogenase

NBT:p-nitroblue tetrazolium chloride

PI:propidium iodide

PS:phosphatidylserine

ROI:regions of interests

Key words

Breviscapine - flavone, myocardial infarction - hypoxia - cardiomyocytes apoptosis - Ca²⁺

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