Effect of puerarin on myocardial injury in KKAy diabetic mice

AIM:To observe the effect of puerarin on myocardial injury according to the time of occurrence of myocardial injury in the development of type 2 diabetic mice. METHODS: The serum levels of glucose (GLU), triglyceride (TG), total cholesterin (TC), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) and high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) in 17-week, 20-week, 24-week, 28-week KKAy mice were detected by automatic biochemical methods. The apoptotic percentage of cardiomyocytes was examined by flow cytometry. The expressions of bax and bcl-2 mRNA in cardiomyocytes were detected by RT-PCR. Caspase-3 expression in cardiomyocytes was determined by immunohistochemical staining. RESULTS: Compared to normal control mice, not only GLU level increased, but also the levels of TG, TC, LDL-C, HDL-C in 20-week, 24-week and 28-week KKAy mice increased apparently (P<0.01). Apoptosis of cardiomyocytes in KKAy mice began to show up at 28-week. The expression of bax mRNA increased and expression of bcl-2 mRNA reduced. At the same time, the expression of caspase-3 increased. Puerarin obviously decreased the apoptotic percentage of cardiomyocytes, reduced the expression level of bax mRNA, improved the expression level of bcl-2 mRNA (P<0.01), inhibited the expression of caspase-3 (P<0.01). CONCLUSION:Myocardial injury exits in type 2 diabetic mice. Mitochondria apoptotic pathway might participate in the hurting course.