Icariside Ⅱ ameliorates myocardial fibrosis in spontaneously hypertensive rats through regulating expression of MMP-2, MMP-9 and TIMP-1 / 中国药理学通报

ABSTRACT

Aim To investigate the effects of IcarisideⅡ ( ICS Ⅱ) on myocardial fibrosis in spontaneously hypertensive rat( SHR) . Methods Twenty male SHR rats were randomly divided into the model group (group SHR) , ICS Ⅱ low ( ICS Ⅱ-L) , middle ( ICSⅡ-M) and high ( ICS Ⅱ-H) group, and male WKY rats were set as control group ( group WKY) . ICS Ⅱ-L, ICSⅡ-M and ICSⅡ-H groups were intragastrically administered with ICS Ⅱ for 12 weeks. After that the blood pressure was measured in rats. Then, the rats were sacrificed and the left ventricles were separated in order to calculate the left ventricular mass index. Mas-son staining was used to detect the occurrence of inter-stitial fibrosis in cardiac tissues. Real time PCR was used to observe the gene expression of MMP-2, MMP-9 and TIMP-1 in the left ventricle in SHRs. The protein expression levels of MMP-2, MMP-9, TIMP-1, Colla- gen Ⅰ and Collagen Ⅲ were measured by Western blot. Results Compared with SHR group, the myo-cardial fibrosis was reduced after ICS Ⅱ (8, 16 mg· kg-1) treatment. The blood pressure and left ventricu-lar mass index decreased(P<0.05). The expressions of MMP-2, MMP-9, CollagenⅠand CollagenⅢwere down-regulated in left ventricular tissues( P <0.05 ) , while the expression of TIMP-1 was up-regulated( P<0.05) . Conclusion Icariside Ⅱ ameliorates myocar-dial fibrosis in SHR, and the mechanisms might be re-lated to the decrease of blood pressure and down-regu-lation of MMP-2, MMP-9 expression and up-regulation of TIMP-1 expression.