Effect of quercetin combined with Praziquantel on expression of myocardial immediate early gene and transforming growth factor-?1 in mice infected with Schistosomiasis japanica / 中草药

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the effects and mechanisms of myocardial injury in schistosome-infected mice.To investigate the effects and mechanisms of quercetin on myocardial injury due to the development of hepatic fibrosis after being treated by Praziquantel.Methods Eighty mice were divided into four groupsgroup A,group B,group C,and group D.Group A,group B,and group C were infected with Schistosoma japonicum cercariae.After 8 weeks,group A was treated with Praziquantel 500 mg/kg for 2 d,group B was treated with quercetin 30 mg/(kg?d) for 8 weeks after being treated with Praziquantel 500 mg/kg for 2 d.Group C was taken as experimental control without any treatment.Group D was taken as normal control.At the week 16,all mice were sacrificed and a part of liver tissue and myocardium tissue were preserved.HE Staining,electric microscope,RT-PCR,and immunohistochemical technique were applied to observing the changes of hepatic and cardiac histopathology,myocardial ultramicrostructure,the expression of myocardial c-fos,c-jun mRNA,and the contents of myocardial transforming growth factor-?1 (TGF-?1),typeⅠand typeⅢcollagen in mice infected with S.japonicum before and after treatments. Results There was different degree of myocardial injury among three groups of experimental control, Praziquantel treatment,Praziquantel combined with quercetin treatment.Praziquantel treatment relieved the degree of hepatic fibrosis and myocardial injury.The content of myocardial c-fos mRNA,c-jun mRNA,TGF-?1,typeⅠand typeⅢcollagen were obviously reduced compared to the experimental control. When Praziquantel treatment combined with quercetin,the degree of hepatic fibrosis and myocardial injury were further relieved.Although the content of myocardial c-fos mRNA,c-jun mRNA,TGF-?1, typeⅠand thypeⅢcollagen were still higher than those in normal control,those were reduced significantly compared to the group treated with Praziquantel.Conclusion Hepatic cirrhosis due to advanced schistosomiasis may lead to cardiac remodeling by stimulating the expression of immediate early gene and promoting the overexpression of TGF-?in myocardium.Anti-fibrosis therapy can reduce the degree of cardiac remodeling.Quercetin may protect myocardium through reducing the degree of hepatic fibrosis and inhibiting the expression of immediate early gene,which could decrease the level of myocardial TGF-?1.