Study on inhibition of Shexiang Baoxin Pills on myocardial remodeling in rats with hepatic cirrhosis and its mechanism / 中草药

ABSTRACT

Objective: To investigate the inhibition of Shexiang Baoxin Pills (SBP) on myocardial remodeling due to the development of hepatic cirrhosis and its mechanism. Methods: To induce hepatic fibrosis, 70 rats were administered with CCl4, twice daily for eight weeks. At the end of the week 2, 10 rats were executed, the liver tissues were HE stained to confirm the formation of hepatic fibrosis, and the rest rats were randomly and equally divided into benazepril[positive control, 10 mg/(kg·d)], SBP[45 mg/(kg·d)], and model groups. The rats were ig administered for six weeks. Ten rats from the total of eighty rats were taken as the normal control group. At the end of the week 8, the blood pressure of all rats was measured, the alanine transarninase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels in serum were detected, and the collagen contents in liver and myocardial tissues were measured by Masson staining. The expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMP-9) and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP-1) were detected by Western blotting, the contents of hydroxyproline, type I and type III collagen in myocardial tissue were measured by ELISA. The liver function and hepatic fibrosis of rats in each group were observed, and the left ventricular hypertrophy index (LVHI) was analyzed. Results: There were different degrees of liver function damage, liver fibrosis, and myocardial injury in the rats in the model group. Compared with the model group, SBP could obviously reduce the contents of ALT and AST in serum and hepatic collagen (P < 0.01), the expression of myocardial MMP-9 and TIMP-1, the contents of hydroxyproline, type I and type III collagen, blue-stained collagen, and LVHI (P < 0.05). The ratio of MMP-9/TIMP-1 was obviously heightened (P < 0.05). The indexes of rats in the benazepril group were improved at different degrees. Conclusion: There is no difference in the effect of anti-hepatic fibrosis and ameliorating myocardium remodeling between SBP and benazepril. SBP has better effect on protecting liver function with damage but has no influence on blood pressure. SBP has better holistic affect on the treatment of cirrhotic cardiomyopathy than benazepril.