Traditional Chinese medicine tongxinluo improves cardiac function of rats with dilated cardiomyopathy

Abstract

The study aimed at testing the hypothesis that tongxinluo capsule might exert its cardioprotective effect by preventing ventricular remodeling and improving coronary microvascular function in a rat model of doxorubicin-induced dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Rats that survived DCM induction were randomly divided into three groups to be given 1.5 g·kg-1·day-1 (TXL-H, n = 9) or 0.15 g·kg-1·day-1 (TXL-L, n = 10) of tongxinluo, or normal saline at the same volume (DCM-C, n = 10) intragastrically. Age matched normal rats treated with normal saline were used as normal controls (NOR-C, n = 9). After four weeks of treatment, the DCM-C, TXL-H, and TXL-L groups exhibited significant cardiac dysfunction, left ventricular remodeling, and coronary microvascular dysfunction, compared with the NOR-C rats. However, myocardial functional parameters were significantly improved and microvascular density (MVD) increased in the TXL-H group compared with the DCM-C group (all P < 0.01). Left ventricular remodeling was prevented. There were close linear relationships between CVF and LVEF (r = - 0.683, P < 0.05), MVD and LVEF (r = 0.895, P < 0.05), and MVD and CVF (r = - 0.798, P < 0.05). It was indicated that high-dose tongxinluo effectively improved cardiac function in rat model of DCM.