Abstract

Background: Shensong Yangxin Capsule (SSYX), traditional Chinese medicine, has been used to treat arrhythmias, angina, cardiac remodeling, cardiac fibrosis, and so on, but its effect on cardiac energy metabolism is still not clear. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of SSYX on myocardium energy metabolism in angiotensin (Ang) II-induced cardiac hypertrophy. Methods: We used 2 &mgr;l (10−6 mol/L) AngII to treat neonatal rat cardiomyocytes (NRCMs) for 48 h. Myocardial &agr;-actinin staining showed that the myocardial cell volume increased. Expression of the cardiac hypertrophic marker-brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) messenger RNA (mRNA) also increased by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Therefore, it can be assumed that the model of hypertrophic cardiomyocytes was successfully constructed. Then, NRCMs were treated with 1 &mgr;l of different concentrations of SSYX (0.25, 0.5, and 1.0 &mgr;g/ml) for another 24 h. To explore the time-depend effect of SSYX on energy metabolism, 0.5 &mgr;g/ml SSYX was added into cells for 0, 6, 12, 24, and 48 h. Mitochondria was assessed by MitoTracker staining and confocal microscopy. mRNA and protein expression of mitochondrial biogenesis-related genes – Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-&ggr; coactivator-1&agr; (PGC-1&agr;), energy balance key factor – adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK), fatty acids oxidation factor – carnitine palmitoyltransferase-1 (CPT-1), and glucose oxidation factor – glucose transporter- 4 (GLUT-4) were measured by PCR and Western blotting analysis. Results: With the increase in the concentration of SSYX (from 0.25 to 1.0 &mgr;g/ml), an increased mitochondrial density in AngII-induced cardiomyocytes was found compared to that of those treated with AngII only (0.25 &mgr;g/ml, 18.3300 ± 0.8895 vs. 24.4900 ± 0.9041, t = 10.240, P < 0.0001; 0.5 &mgr;g/ml, 18.3300 ± 0.8895 vs.