| Objective: The important initial step of atherosclerosis is vascular endothelial injury,and hyperlipemia is major risk factor for atherosclerosis. After risk factors damage vascular endothelium, permeability and adhesiveness of endothelium and coagulability of blood change and the levels of secretion of growth factors and cytokines increase, which lead to a series of atherogenic cascade reaction. The events in pathogenesis of atherosclerosis are made up of infiltration of lipid, vascular endothelial injury, infiltration of monocyte and lymphocyte, immunoreaction, proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cell and extracellular matrix and thrombosis etcetera.Consequently, the key to antiatherosclerosis is to interfere atherogenesis by different ways. The present experiment is to study the effect of equisetum on serum level and aortic morphology in early atherosclerosis rats fed by high fat diet and its possible mechanism.Methods: Forty-eight male mature Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly and equally into four groups: normal group, model group, low dosage group(treated with equisetum of 5g/kg?d), high dosage group(treated with equisetum of 12.5g/kg·d). Equisetum is managed to rats via gavage for ten weeks. Normal saline was given to rats of normal group and model group at the same volume and same way. The normal group was fed with standard chow,other groups were fed with high lipid diet. The serum levels of total cholesterol(TC), triglyceride(TG), low density lipoprotein(LDL), high density lipoprotein(HDL) , nitric oxide(NO), nitric oxide synthase(NOS), Interleukin-1(IL-1), interleukin-8(IL-8) and tumor necrosis factor(TNF) were measured after ten weeks. Intercellular adhesion molecule-1(ICAM-1) and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1(VCAM-1) of mononuclear cell were examined by Flow Cytometry. Morphological changes of aorta were observed under gross, light and electron microscopes.Results: 1. In model group, TC and TG and LDL were increased and HDL was decreased compared with normal group(P<0.01). After treating with equisetum, TC and TG and LDL were decreased compared with model group(P<0.01), and HDL were increased compared with model group (P<0.01). 2. The bioactivity of NOS was lower and the content of NO was higher in model group compared with the normal group (p<0.01). The low dosage equisetum increased the bioactivity of NOS, decrease the release of NO. 3. The serum levels of IL-1,IL-8 and TNF in model group were higher than that in normal group(p<0.01). The serum levels of IL-1 and IL-8 in equisetum group were lower than that in model group(p<0.01). The serum level of TNF in low dosage equisetum was increased compared with model group (p<0.01), but that in high group has no change. 4. The expression of ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 of mononuclear cell in model group were enhanced compared with normal group (p<0.01). The expression of ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 of mononuclear cell in equisetum group were lower than that in model group. In low dosage equisetum, the expression of VCAM-1 of mononuclear were lower than that in high dosage group(p<0.01). 5. The changes of the early stage of atherosclerosis in model group were focal or transient areas of endothelial loss, monocyte adhered to endothelium or moved into subendothelia space, proliferation of smooth muscle cell and so on. The pathological changes in equisetum group were improved compared with model group.Conclusion: 1. Equisetum has obvious effect on decreasing the serum levels of TC and TG and LDL , and increasing the serum level of HDL in atherosclerotic rats. 2. Equisetum can regulate the release of NO and the synthesis of NOS. 3. Equisetum can downregulate the serum levels of IL-1 and IL-8. 4.Equisetum can upregulate the serum level of TNF. 5. Equisetum can decrease the expression of ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 of mononuclear cell. 6. Morphological changes of aorta show a significant effect of protecting aorta endothelial cell ,inhibiting monocyte adhering to endothelium and decreasing the proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cell in rats fed with... |
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