Astragalus injection exerts anti-reperfusion injury through NOS in cultured cardiac myocytes

Objective: To investigate the relationship between the protective effect of Astragalus injection and the expression of nitric-oxide synthase（NOS） in cultured cardiac myocytes.Methods: Studies were conducted on cultured cells.Rat ventricular myocytes were subjected to hypoxia 4 h and reoxygenation 2 h.Astragalus injection was applied to cells during ischaemia/reoxygenation,myocardial enzyme was determined and NOS expression was detected by Western blot after 120 min of reperfusion.Results: In cardiac myocytes,incubation with Astragalus during ischaemia/reoxygenation attenuated the extent of cell damage.Protective effect of Astragalus injection was decreased by L-NAME,an inhibitor of NOS activation,but had no statistical significance.Astragalus enhanced the expression of NOS in ischaemia/reoxygenation myocytes.Conclusion: This study showed that Astraglus attenuated cardiac myocytes injury during reperfusion and the mechanism involved NOS signal pathway.