Effect of carvedilol on left ventricular remodeling after AMI

Objective: To evaluate the effects of the third generation β-blocker, carvedilol, on preventing left ventricular remodeling after acute myocardial infarction(AMI) in rabbits.Methods:After left coronary artery ligation for twenty-four hours, twenty surviving AMI male rabbits were randomly divided into 2 groups: (1) AMI control (n=10) (2) carvedilol control [1 mg/(kg·d), n=10]. Sham-operated group (n=10) was selected randomly as non-infarction control. After 4 weeks of drug therapy by gavages, all the animals were killed and the rabbit hearts were acquired. Left and right ventricular weights were directly measured with exact balance. The contents of collagen in local myocardium were also measured. Then the tissues of the heart were fixed and sampled for pathological analysis.Results: Compared with sham-operated group, the LV weights and RV weights of the AMI group were all significantly increased (P0.05), and the contents of collagen were significantly increased, too. In comparison with AMI control group, LVWs and RVWs were all significantly decreased (P0.05) in carvedilol treated group. In carvedilol group, the contents of collagen of infarct zone were insignificantly decreased (P0.05), but the contents of collagen were significantly decreased (P0.05) in non-infarct zone after AMI. The damage degree of myocytes was evidently reduced in carvedilol group.Conclusion:Carvedilol has effect on preventing left ventricular remodeling and reducing the damage degree of myocytes after AMI in rabbits, which is worth studying further.