Effects of Paeonol Combined with Panax Notoginseng Saponins on Nrf2/ARE Pathway in Rats with Diabetic Cardiomyopathy

[Objectives]To investigate whether paeonol(Pae)combined with panax notoginseng saponins(PNS)can protect the myocardium of rats with diabetic cardiomyopathy(DCM)through improving the antioxidant capacity of the rats by activating the Nrf2/ARE pathway.[Methods]The rats were fed with high-fat and high-sugar diet for 6 weeks,and combined with intraperitoneal injection of small-dose STZ to build a type II diabetes model;the model rats were randomly divided into a model group,a Pae group of 80 mg/kg,and a PNS group of 100 mg/kg,a Pae 80 mg/kg+PNS 100 mg/kg,and a metformin group 157.5 mg/kg;rats of normal group and model group were injected with an equal volume of sodium carboxymethyl cellulose(1%),10 rats in each group.After 8 weeks,3 rats in the model group were taken for histopathological examination.Changes in myocardial fibrosis and myocardial collagen formation indicated that the building of DCM model was successful.qRT-PCR and Western blot were used to detect the expression levels of Nrf2,HO-1,Col-I,and Col-III in myocardial tissue of each group of rats.[Results]Compared with the normal group,the mRNA and protein expression levels of Nrf2 and HO-1 in myocardial tissue of the DCM group rats were significantly reduced,and the mRNA and protein expression levels of Col-I and Col-III were significantly increased;compared with the DCM group,the mRNA and protein expression levels of Nrf2 and HO-1 in the myocardial tissue of each drug group increased to varying degrees,and the combined drug group increased more significantly than that of the single drug group;the mRNA and protein expression levels of Col-I and Col-III were reduced to varying degrees,and the combined drug group declined more significantly than that of the single drug group.[Conclusions]Paeonol combined with panax notoginseng saponins can up-regulate the expression of Nrf2 and HO-1 in myocardial tissue,inhibit the expression of type I and type III collagen.The mechanism may be related to improving the DCM myocardial fibrosis through activating the Nrf2/ARE pathway.

Effects of Paeonol on CRP and NF-κB p65 in Rats with Atherosclerosis

[Objectives] The protective mechanism of paeonol on atherosclerotic vessels was investigated by detecting CRP content in the serum and expression of NF-κB p65 in the aorta of atherosclerotic rats. [Methods] An animal model of AS rats was prepared by high-fat diet combined with intraperitoneal injection of VD3. The rats were randomly divided into the normal group,model group,high-dose paeonol group( 120 mg/kg),medium-dose paeonol group( 60 mg/kg),low-dose paeonol group( 30 mg/kg),and simvastatin group( 10 mg/kg) as the positive control group,and drug intervention was continued for 16 weeks. CRP content in the serum was detected by ELISA method,and the expression level of NF-κB p65 was detected by RT-PCR and Western-blot method. [Results]Compared with the normal group,CRP content in the serum and the expression of NF-κB p65 mRNA and protein in the aorta of rats in the model group significantly increased. Compared with the model group,CRP content in the serum dropped obviously,and the expression of NF-κB p65 mRNA and protein in the aorta of rats significantly reduced in the administration groups. Moreover,the improvement of each indicator in the high-dose paeonol group was obviously better than that of the medium-dose and low-dose groups. [Conclusions] Paeonol may protect atherosclerotic vessels by reducing serum CRP content,inhibiting the expression of NF-κB p65 and reducing inflammation.

Preparation of Acute Myocardial Infarction Model for SD Rats and Ventricular Remodeling

[Objectives] To prepare an acute myocardial infarction model for SD rats and conduct ventricular remodeling. [Methods] 45 male Sprague-Dawley( SD) rats were randomly selected in 60 male rats as the model group and the rest rats were sham operation group. For the model group,the left anterior descending coronary artery was ligated,while the sham operation group was not ligated. 4 weeks after the operation,hemodynamics was used to measure the cardiac function of both groups. HE staining and Masson staining were used to observe the changes in myocardial histopathology and myocardial fibrosis of both groups. [Results] Compared with the sham operation group,the model group rats showed significant decrease in the left ventricular systolic pressure( LVSP) and left ventricular pressure maximum rising and dropping rate( ± d_p/d_(tmax)) and significant increase in the left ventricular end-diastolic pressure( LVEDP). HE staining showed that a large number of myocardial cell necrosis occured in the model group,while the morphology of myocardial cells of rats in the sham operation group was normal. Masson staining showed that myocardial collagen fibers in the model group were significantly increased compared with those in the sham operation group. Collagen fibers were scattered in the sham operation group. [Conclusions] It can be concluded that cardiac function of rats changed and ventricular remodeling occurred in 4 weeks after myocardial infarction.

Surface-Driven High-Pressure Processing

The application of high pressure favors many chemical processes, providing higher yields or improved rates in chemical reactions and improved solvent power in separation processes, and allowing activation barriers to be overcome through the increase in molecular energy and molecular collision rates. High pressures-up to millions of bars using diamond anvil cells-can be achieved in the laboratory, and lead to many new routes for chemical synthesis and the synthesis of new materials with desirable thermody- namic, transport, and electronic properties. On the industrial scale, however, high-pressure processing is currently limited by the cost of compression and by materials limitations, so that few industrial processes are carried out at pressures above 25 MPa. An alternative approach to high-pressure processing is pro- posed here, in which very high local pressures are generated using the surface-driven interactions from a solid substrate. Recent experiments and molecular simulations show that such interactions can lead to local pressures as high as tens of thousands of bars （1 bar=1×10^5 Pa）, and even millions of bars in some cases. Since the active high-pressure processing zone is inhomogeneous, the pressure is different in dif- ferent directions. In many cases, it is the pressure in the direction parallel to the surface of the substrate （the tangential pressure） that is most greatly enhanced. This pressure is exerted on the molecules to be processed, but not on the solid substrate or the containing vessel. Current knowledge of such pressure enhancement is reviewed, and the possibility of an alternative route to high-pressure processing based on surface-driven forces is discussed. Such surface-driven high-pressure processing would have the advantage of achieving much higher pressures than are possible with traditional bulk-phase processing, since it eliminates the need for mechanical compression. Moreover, no increased pressure is exerted on the containing vessel for the process, thus eliminating concerns about materials failure.