Protective effects of tanshinone ⅡA derivative on myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury in rats

Tanshinone ⅡA（TSⅡA） is the major bioactive constituent of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge,a Chinese herbal medicine,which has protective effects on myocardial ischemia/reperfusion（MIR） injury.However,the cardioprotective effects of TSⅡA as well as its clinical use were limited due to its poor water solubility.The objective of this study was to evaluate whether Tanshinone ⅡA derivative（TD）,a new water soluble compound synthesized by TSⅡA and N-Methyl-D-Glucamine,had protective effects on MIR injury and what the related mechanism was.The cardioprotective effects of TD were evaluated and compared with TSⅡA in a rat MIR model.The results show that pretreatment with TD significantly alleviated inflammatory infiltration and exhibited antioxidant effect in MIR injury by reducing the activity of lactate dehydrogenase（LDH） and malondialdehyde（MDA）,decreasing expression of nuclear factor-κ-gene binding（NF-κB） and upregulating expression of heme oxygenase（HO-1）,but having no effect on the content of total superoxide dismutase（T-SOD） and m RNA expression of superoxide dismutase（SOD-1）.Thus,our study reveals that TD exerted significant protective effects on MIR injury through attenuating oxidative stress and inflammatory responses.

The granule characteristics of yam,sweet potato and tapioca starches determined by gravitational field-flow fractionation

To study the characteristics of tuber starchgranules,firstly,three kinds of common tuber starches were separated and characterized by gravitational field-flow fractionation(GrFFF)instrument,and the ratios of large and small starch granules A/B were calculated.Then,the liquid of peak A and peak B was collected and observed by scanning electron microscope(SEM)to verify the separation result of GrFFF.Secondly,the particle size distribution and crystal characteristics were characterized by particle size analyser,X-ray diffraction(X-ray)and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FT-IR).Three kinds of tuber starches all had the bimodal distribution in GrFFF.Peak A contained large particles,and peak B contained small particles.For yam starch,the ratio of starch granules A/B was much higher than 1;for sweet potato starch the ratio was approximately equal to 1;for tapioca starch,the ratio was much lower than 1.Moreover,the starch granules of sweet potato and tapioca were both A-type crystallinity,while yam starch granules were C-type crystallinity.GrFFF could be used to characterize and separate large and small granules of tuber starches and estimate the ratio of starch granules A/B.Yam starch was suitable for the development of slowly digestible starch(one kind of functional food),which could delay the occurrence of metabolic syndrome,diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.Tapioca starch was suitable for plant capsules,which were safer than gelatin capsule and could prevent the"poison capsule"incident from happening.