Objective. To explore the mechanism of cardioprotective effects of Chinese medicine,
Yiqi Huoxue recipe, in rats with
myocardial infarction- (MI-) induced
heart failure. Methods. Male Sprague-Dawley rats underwent left anterior descending artery (LAD)
ligation or
sham operation. The surviving MI rats were divided randomly into three groups: MI (5 mL/kg/d NS by gavage), MI +
Metoprolol Tartrate (MT) (12 mg/kg/d MT by gavage), and MI +
Yiqi Huoxue (5 mL/kg recipe by gavage). And the
sham operation rats were given 5 mL/kg/d
normal saline. Treatments were given on the day following surgery for 4 weeks. Then rats were detected for heart structure and function by transthoracic echocardiography. Apoptosis in heart tissues was detected by TUNEL staining. To determine whether the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response pathway is included in the cardioprotective function of the recipe, ER stress related
proteins such as
GRP78 and
caspase-12 were examined. Results.
Yiqi Huoxue recipe attenuated heart function injury, reversed histopathological damage, alleviated myocardial apoptosis and inhibited ER stress in MI rats. Conclusion. All the results suggest that
Yiqi Huoxue recipe improves the injured heart function maybe through inhibition of ER stress response pathway, which is a promising target in
therapy for
heart failure.