Curcumin improves cardiac function in rats with autoimmune myocarditis by enhancing myocardial autophagy activity / 西安交通大学学报(医学版)

ABSTRACT

Objective: To explore whether curcumin can improve cardiac function in rats with experimental autoimmune myocarditis (EAM) by enhancing myocardial autophagy activity. Methods: We used 6-week-old Lewis rats to establish a model of autoimmune myocarditis by the classical method of porcine myocardium immunoglobulin. We randomly divided 21 rats into three groups control group (Con), autoimmune myocarditis group (EAM), and curcumin-treated group (Cur), with 7 in each group. The rats were treated with curcumin for 21 days. The structure and function of rat heart was evaluated by echocardiography on day 22. Western blot was used to detect the expression of microtubule-associated protein light chain 3 (LC3). The expressions of Beclin-1 and ATG-5 in the myocardium were measured by Real-time PCR. Results: The echocardiography showed that left ventricular systolic function was abnormal in EAM rats compared with rats in Con group. After administration of curcumin, rats in Cur group had better left ventricular systolic function than EAM rats. Compared with that in Con group, LC3 expression in EAM group was significantly increased (P=0.026). After curcumin administration, the expression of LC3 increased more obviously than that in EAM group (P=0.014). Beclin-1, an upstream factor of LC3, was significantly increased in EAM group (P=0.041) and increased even higher under administration of curcumin (P=0.003). ATG-5, another LC3 upstream factor, did not significantly differ among the three groups (P=0.108). Conclusion: Curcumin can improve cardiac function in rats with autoimmune myocarditis by inducing myocardial autophagy activity, which is mediated through the promotion of Beclin-1.