Berberine attenuates adverse left ventricular remodeling and cardiac dysfunction after acute myocardial infarction in rats: Role of autophagy

Abstract

The present study aimed to test the hypothesis that berberine, a plant-derived anti-oxidant, attenuates adverse left ventricular remodelling and improves cardiac function in a rat model of myocardial infarction (MI). Furthermore, the potential mechanisms that mediated the cardioprotective actions of berberine, in particular the effect on autophagy, were also investigated. Acute MI was induced by ligating the left anterior descending coronary artery of Sprague-Dawley rats. Cardiac function was assessed by transthoracic echocardiography. The protein activity/levels of autophagy related to signalling pathways (e.g. LC-3B, Beclin-1) were measured in myocardial tissue by immunohistochemical staining and western blot. Four weeks after MI, berberine significantly prevented cardiac dysfunction and adverse cardiac remodelling. MI rats treated with low dose berberine (10 mg/kg per day) showed higher left ventricular ejection fraction and fractional shortening than those treated with high-dose berberine (50 mg/kg per day). Both doses reduced interstitial fibrosis and post-MI adverse cardiac remodelling. The cardioprotective action of berberine was associated with increased LC-3B II and Beclin-1 expressions. Furthermore, cardioprotection with berberine was potentially related to p38 MAPK inhibition and phospho-Akt activation. The present in vivo study showed that berberine is effective in promoting autophagy, and subsequently attenuating left ventricular remodelling and cardiac dysfunction after MI. The potential underlying mechanism is augmentation of autophagy through inhibition of p38 MAPK and activation of phospho-Akt signalling pathways.

Oleuropein attenuates the progression of heart failure in rats by antioxidant and antiinflammatory effects

“…Moreover, echocardiographic assessments showed that LVIDs, LVIDd, systolic volume, and diastolic volume of coronary artery-ligated rats receiving vehicle were significantly higher, while SV, EF, FS, and CO of that group were significantly lower than those of the sham-operated group. The echocardiographic findings are similar to those of earlier studies on experimental (Huang et al 2009;Mercanoglu et al 2010;Zhang et al 2014;Zhou et al 2007) and clinical (Radovanovic et al 2012) heart failure. Sham-V sham group receiving vehicle (1 ml distilled water/day), CAL-V coronary arteryligated group receiving vehicle (1 ml distilled water/day), CALOle-5 coronary artery-ligated group receiving oleuropein at 5 mg/kg/ day, CAL-Ole10 coronary arteryligated group receiving oleuropein at 10 mg/kg/day, CAL-Ole20 coronary artery-ligated group receiving oleuropein at 20 mg/kg/ day.…”

Pretreatment with a combination of ligustrazine and berberine improves cardiac function in rats with coronary microembolization

“…Berberine is an important alkaloid derived from Coptis chinensis Franch (Huang Lian). Previous studies [10][11] indicated that berberine had cardioprotective effects that included lowering lipids, reducing ischemia/reperfusion-induced myocardial apoptosis, and attenuating adverse left ventricular remodeling [12][13][14] . Our previous study in rats with acute myocardial infarction [15] showed that combined ligustrazine and berberine produced more effective inhibition of platelet activation and inflammatory reactions than did either agent separately.…”

The use of nanotechnology in cardiovascular disease

“…Berberine is a small fluorescent isoquinoline quaternary alkaloid which has proven to be useful at high doses as a cardio-protectant (Zhang et al 2014) and for improvement of cardiac function (Huang et al 2015). Berberine-loaded liposomes have been developed and tested for IL-6 secretion inhibition and cardiac function protection against adverse remodelling after MI in C57BL/6J mice (Allijn et al 2017).…”