Cardioprotection of Danshen Decoction Preconditioning against Myocardial Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury in Rats

GAO Junjie; ZHU Wenye; LI Yiping; CHEN Jie; CHEN Tiejun; WANG Xiaolong; XUE Jingui; DENG Qian

Abstract：Objective To assess the effect of Danshen decoction (DSD) preconditioning against myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury (MIRI) in rats, and explore the mechanism.Methods Wistar rats were randomly divided into normal control group, ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) model group, cyclosporine A preconditioning I/R group, and DSD preconditioning I/R group.After gavaged for 1 week, the myocar-dial ischemia/reperfusion model was induced by ligation of the anterior descending coronary artery for 30 min/reperfusion for 120 min.Infarct size was assessed by triphenyl tetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining.The mitochondrial ultrastructure was observed by transmissionelectron microscope (TEM).The response of isolated mitochondria to Ca2+was measured as an index of mitochondrial permeability tran-sition pore opening.Results Compared with I/R model group, the infarction size in cyclosporine A preconditioning group and DSD pre-conditioning I/R group were reduced (P ＜0.05).Compared with the normal control group, the isolated myocardial mitochondria respon-ding to Ca2+was swollen, and the ratio of absorbance decreased rapidly in the I/R group (P ＜0.05);compared with the I/R modelgroup, the decrease of absorbance of mitochondria induced by Ca2+was partially recovered in cyclosporine A preconditioning group andDSD preconditioning group (P ＜0.05).TEM showed that the myocardial mitochondria was significantly swollen in the I/R group com-pared with the normal control group, while they were attenuated in cyclosporine A preconditioning group and DSD preconditioning groupcompared with the I/R group.Conclusion DSD preconditioning has cardioprotection against MIRI in rats, and its mechanism may be re-lated to inhibiting the opening of mitochondrial permeability pore, and attenuating myocardial mitochondrial swelling.