Protective effect of a polysaccharide from Salvia miltiorrhiza on isoproterenol (ISO)-induced myocardial injury in rats

In this study, we investigated the cardioprotective effect of one purified polysaccharide (SMP1) from Salvia miltiorrhiza on isoproterenol (ISO)-induced myocardial infarction (MI) in rats. ISO-treated rats showed severe myocardial damage and high lipid peroxidation level, as well as decreased endogenous myocardial antioxidant function. Pretreatment with SMP1 (100 and 400 mg/kg) for 30 days significantly increased the body weight, decreased the heart weight, attenuated the serum levels of creatine kinase (CK), creatine phospokinase-MB (CK-MB), dehydrogenase (LDH), alkaline phosphate (ALP), aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), total cholesterol, triglyceride, and LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C), along with the increased concentration of HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C). In addition, SMP1 also enhanced myocardial superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) activities and elevated myocardial reduced glutathione (GSH) level, along with a decrease in thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) concentration. Collectively, our results indicated that long-term oral administration of SMP1 offered significant protection against the damage induced by ISO in rat heart through enhancement of endogenous antioxidants and antihyperlipidemic activity. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.