Combinational effects of trimetazidin and parecoxib on acute myocardial infarction in rats

AIM: To investigate the protective effects and mechanisms of combinational use of trimetazidine(TMZ) and parecoxib sodium on acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in rats. METHODS: Sixty-six Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 5 groups: sham group; AMI group; AMI+TMZ group; AMI+parecoxib group; AMI+TMZ+parecoxib group. All rats were sacrificed and cardiac functions (HR, LVSP, LVEDP, +dp/dt_max,-dp/dt_max) were measured with a Pclab-3804 biological signal processing system on the 8th day. The infarct size in each group was checked up by TTC staining method. RT-PCR was employed to detect the bax mRNA and bcl-2 mRNA. The protein levels of COX-2, Bax, Bcl-2 and cleaved caspase-3 in myocardium were determined by Western blotting. The activity of caspase-3 in each group was measured by colorimetric assay kit, and the apoptotic rates were detected with DNA ladder kit.RESULTS: Compared with sham group, increased expression of COX-2 protein (P<0.01) was observed in AMI group. The expression of COX-2 protein in parecoxib group was lower than that in AMI group (P<0.01). Compared with AMI group, the combinational use of trimetazidin and parecoxib improved contractile functions (LVSP and +dp/dt_max), reduced the infarct size and lowered the apoptotic rates remarkably. Specifically, the combinational use of trimetazidin and parecoxib showed better effects than use of trimetazidin or parecoxib alone. Reduced expression of Bax/Bcl-2 mRNA and protein, the reduced caspase-3 activity and cleaved caspase-3 expression were also found in combinational group as compared with other groups (P<0.05).CONCLUSION: The combinational use of trimetazidin and parecoxib effectively improves cardiac functions and reduces infarct size. The mechanism of the protective effect is probably associated with inhibiting apoptosis of cardiac myocytes.