ABSTRACT
Aim To study the effect of puerarin( Pue) against myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury and in-volved mitochondrial mechanism. Methods Anoxia/reoxygenation( A/R) injury model was established in H9c2 cell. Recombinant plasmid pFLAG-VDAC1 was constructed. Cells were randomly divided into 4 groups, normal control group ( Control) , A/R group, puerarin group ( Pue + A/R ) , and pFLAG-VDAC1-Pue group. Real-time PCR was used to investigate the expression of VDAC1 at mRNA level, and the expres-sion of protein level was detected by Western blot. LDH and CK activities were measured by automatic bi-ochemical analyzer. Mitochondrial membrane potential ( Δψm) and cell apoptosis were observed by flow cy-tometry method. Mitochondrial swelling test was used to detect the opening of mitochondria permeability tran- sition pore ( mPTP) . Results Compared with control group, the expression of VDAC1 and mRNA was up-regulated in A/R group, LDH and CK activity were el-evated, and then mPTP opened, Δψm collapsed, cell apoptosis was significantly increased. Puerarin pre-treatment can lower the expression of VDAC1, main-tain Δψm, prevent the opening of mPTP, and reduce apoptosis. However, the protective effect of Puerarin could be cancelled by transfection of pFLAG-VDAC1. Conclusions The cardioprotection of Puerarin against A/R injury is closely related to down-regulation of VDAC1 and prevention of mPTP opening.