Astragalus polysaccharides improve chronic heart failure by promoting myocardial FFA metabolism via AMPK pathway / 中国病理生理杂志

ABSTRACT

AIM:To investigate the effect of Astragalus polysaccharides ( APS) on chronic heart failure and its mechanism.METHODS:Male SD rats (n=32) were randomly divided into control group , sham group, model group and APS group (8 rats in each group).The left coronary artery ligation in the rats was conducted to establish myocardial infarc -tion heart failure model.After modeling, the rats in APS group were given APS (3 g· kg-1· d-1) by intragastric adminis-tration for 6 weeks.Left ventricular diastolic diameter (LVD), left ventricular systolic diameter (LVS), left ventricular ejection fraction ( LVEF) and fractional shortening ( FS) were detected by echocardiography .HE staining was used to ob-serve the pathological changes .The concentrations of free fatty acid ( FFA) in the serum and myocardium were observed by the method of acetyl coenzyme A synthetase and acetyl coenzyme A oxidase ( ACS-ACOD ) .The protein levels of total AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), phosphorylated AMP-activated protein kinase (p-AMPK), fatty acid translocase (FAT/CD36) and carnitine palmitoyltransferase I (CPT-1) were measured by Western blotting.RESULTS: No signifi-cant difference in each index between sham group and control group was observed .Compared with control group , LVEF and FS in model group was significantly decreased , while LVD and LVS was significantly increased ( P<0.05 ) .The LVEF and FS in APS group were significantly improved compared with model group ( P<0.05 ) , and there was no significant difference between APS group and control group .LVD and LVS in APS group were obviously improved compared with mo-del group (P<0.05), and the difference was significant compared with control group (P<0.05).Compared with control group, focal myocardial necrosis increased , and residual myocardial cells reduced in model group , while those was much better in APS group as compared with model group (P<0.05).The FFA concentrations in the serum and myocardium in model group increased significantly compared with control group ( P<0.05 ) , while those decreased significantly in APS group as compared with model group (P<0.05).The protein levels of p-AMPK, CPT-1, and cell membrane FAT/CD36 in model group decreased significantly compared with control group (P<0.05), and those in APS group increased obvious-ly compared with control group (P<0.05).CONCLUSION:APS improves chronic heart failure by activating the AMPK pathway and promoting myocardial ingestion and utiliation of FFA .