Protective Effects Of β-asarone Against The Myocardial Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury In Cultured Cardiac Myocytes

Backgroud: As the sort of Chinese herb medicine,the medical using part(SCP) ofAcorus tatarinowii Schott is its rhizome. The rhizome and leaves of SCP have volatileoil(0.11～0.42%), which has been discovered inculding 34 specific compositions. Themajor component of volatile oil isβ-asarone(63.2%～81.2%),α-asarone(3.4%～13.7%).SCP is the commonly used medicine of cerebrovascular system(CVS), which can treatcataphora, vesania, coronary heart disease, angina pectoris, upset heart rate, and so on.Modern Pharmacology indicated that SCP could against upset heart rate and thecondensation of platelet, relax blood vessel, improve blood-supply, decrease blood-fat. Inthese years, our laboratory extractedβ-asarone from SCP, which is the main effectivecomponent of SCP, and its purity is more than 99.44%. Our Lab has done a series of studiesof SCP on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular systems. The studies indicated thatβ-asaronecould decrease blood-fat of atherosclerosis rat; improve the blood theological characteristicof rat; relieve necrosis of ischemia myocardium. Accordingly,β-asarone can protect thecardiovascular and cerebrovascular systems, which indicates that SCP has great therapeuticefficacy on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular systems.Aim: The myocardial ischem/reperfusion injury(MI/RI) model was set up withNa₂S₂O₄, our research can investigate the protective effects and mechanism ofβ-asaroneagainst MI/RI in cultured cardiac myocytes.Methods: The MI/RI model was set up with Na₂S₂O₄, which make use of rat cardiacmyocytes. The experiment has six groups: normal group, model control group, high dosegroup ofβ-asarone(25μg/ml), middle dose group ofβ-asarone(12.5μg/ml), low dose groupofβ-asarone(6.25μg/ml), base material group. In this model, the viability of cardiacmyocytes(using MTT method), mitochondria membrane potential(MMP)(using FlowCytometry), dehydrogenase(LDH, CK) activitices in the medium were measured.Accordingly, our research can observe the protective effects ofβ-asarone in cultured cardiac myocytes.Results: Compare with normal group, the viability of cardiac myocytes and MMP inmodel control group were obviously decreased(P≤0.05), dehydrogenase(LDH,CK)activitices in the medium were obviously advanced in model control group(P≤0.05). Itindicated that cell injury was serious, the MI/RI model succeeded. Compare with modelcontrol group,β-asarone can obviously advance the viability of cardiac myocytes andMMP(P≤0.05), obviously decreased dehydrogenase(LDH,CK) activitices in themedium(P≤0.05). The protective effects ofβ-asarone(12.5μg/ml) was better than othergroups.Conelusion:β-asarone can obviously advance the viability of cardiac myocytes andMMP, obviously decreased dehydrogenase(LDH,CK) activitices in the medium. It resultsthat the protective effects ofβ-asarone against MI/RI in cultured cardiac myocytes weresignificant. The high, middle, low dose groups ofβ-asarone(final concentration were25μg/ml, 12.5μg/ml, 6.25μg/ml)have not dose-effect relationship. The protective effects ofmiddle dose group was better than other groups.