Effects of puerarin on level of angiotensin II in left cardiac ventricle and its protective effect on left ventricular hypertrophy.

Objective To explore whether puerarin reversing left ventricular hypertrophy is related to changes on the levels of AngⅡ,ET-1 and NO in plasma and left cardiac ventricle.Methods A rat model of renal hypertension was induced by two-kidney,one-clip.Puerarin was intraperitoneally administered at a concentration of 200,100 and 50 mg/kg(n=8 each)for six weeks respectively.ET-1 and AngⅡ were measured by radioimmunoassay.NO was measured by nitrate reductase.Protein content of the tissue was determined by a Coomassie blue dye-binding assay.Left ventricular mass index (LVMI) calculated by dividing left ventricular mass in milligrams by rat weight in grams.Results Puerarin with three different doses significantly decreased LVMI compared with model group(P0.01 or P0.05).High-and middle-dose puerarin significantly reduced contents of AngⅡ and ET-1(P0.01 or P0.05),but increased that of NO markedly in plasma and left cardiac ventricle (P0.01 or P0.05).Low dose puerarin decreased only the level of Ang Ⅱ in cardiac tissue without obviously changing other biologically active factors mentioned above.Conclusion Puerarin′s protective effect on myocardium is related to its regulatory role for the levels of local myocardial AngⅡ,ET-1 and NO.