Effects of Nelumbinis Semen on Contractile Dysfunction in

Ischemic and Reperfused Rat Heart

 

Jong-Hoon Kim, Moonkyu Kang, Chongwoon Cho, Hwan-Suck Chung,

Chang-Woon Kang, Shoukat Parvez, and Hyunsu Bae

 

Abstract

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Nelumbinis Semen (NS), or lotus seed, is one of the most well-known traditional herbal medicines and is frequently used to treat cardiovascular symptoms in Korea. The anti-ischemic effects of NS on ischemia-induced isolated rat heart were investigated through analyses of changes in blood pressure, aortic flow, coronary flow, and cardiac output. The subjects in this study were divided into two groups: a control, untreated ischemia-induced group, and an ischemia-induced group treated with NS. There were no significant differences in perfusion pressure, aortic flow, coronary flow and cardiac output between the groups before ischemia was induced. The supply of oxygen and buffer was stopped for ten minutes to induce ischemia in isolated rat hearts, and NS was administered during ischemia induction. NS treatment significantly prevented decreases in perfusion pressure, aortic flow, coronary flow and cardiac output under ischemic conditions (p<0.01). In addition, the mechanism of the anti-ischemic effects of NS was also examined through quantitation of intracellular calcium content in rat neonatal cardiomyocytes. NS significantly prevented intracellular calcium increases induced by isoproterenol (p<0.01). These results suggest that NS has distinct anti-ischemic effects through calcium antagonism.

 

© 2006 Archives of Pharmacal Reserach. All rights reserved.

1.              Introduction

2.              Materials and methods

1.           Preparation of Nelumbinis Semen: The sprayed, dried extracts of NS used in this study were purchased from Sun Ten Pharmaceutical Company (Taipei, Taiwan).

2.           Preparation of total alkaloids from NS

3.           HPLC Analysis of total alkaloids of NS

4.           Heart preparation and perfusion apparatus

5.           Ischemia induction of isolated-perfused rat heart

6.           Preparation of cardiomyocytes from neonatal rats

7.           Intracellular Ca²⁺ imaging

8.           Statistical analysis

3.              Results

1.           Determination of maximal effective dose of NS in ischemia-induced isolated rat heart

2.           Heart rate in ischemia-induced isolated rat heart

3.           Overall anti-ischemic effects of NS on ischemiainduced isolated rat heart

4.           Recovery effect of NS on decreased perfusion pressure and aortic flow of ischemia-induced isolated rat heart

5.           Recovery effect of NS on decreased coronary flow in ischemia-induced isolated rat heart

6.           Recovery effect of NS on decreased cardiac output in ischemia-induced isolated rat heart

7.           Effects of NS on intracellular Ca²⁺ overloads induced by isoproterenol in rat neonatal cardiomyocytes

4.              Discussion

5.              Acknowledgements

6.              References

 

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