Effects Of Artemisia Argvi Essential Oil On Monocrotaline-induced Pulmonary Hyper-tension In Rats

Background/Aims:Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a common disease which is characterized by pulmonary vascular remodeling caused by elevated pulmonary vascular resisitance. The exact pathogenesis of PAH remains unknown and the therapy of PAH only can delay its progression, so its study is very important for the PAH patients. Monocrotaline-induced pulmonary hypertension models were established in our study. The effects and mechanism of artemisia argyi essential oil on the rats of the PAH model was studied by researching the pulmonay artery pressure, pulmonary vascular remodeling, right ventricular hypertrohy and some related proteins in lung tissues, which is to provide some experiment evidences for treatment of pulmonary hypertension with artemisia argyi essential oil. Methods:140SD rats were randomly divided into7grous, including control, model,sildenafil, Bosentan, low-dose, mid-dose and high-dose drug groups,20rats in each group. The animal model was established by intraperitoneally injecting of60mg/kg moncrotaline in the model and drug groups. Rats in control and model groups were given edible oil by gavage for21days. The sildenafil group was treated with sidenafil (0.025g/kg). The bosentan group was treated with bosentan (0.1g/kg). The drug groups were administrated with s artemisia argyi essential oil in the same way in the same period as the above described. The mean right ventricular pressure (mRVP), mean pulmonary arterial pressure (mPAP), and max right ventricular pressure (maxRVP) were measured by using right cardiac catheterization. The rats were then sacrificed for determination of lung wet weight (wW) and the weight of right ventricule (RV) and left ventricule pus septum (LV+S). Lung index and right ventricular hypertrophy index were calculated..The expression of NF-κB and α-SMA in lung tissue was assessed by immunohistochemistry.Results:Rats received a single subcutaneous injection of monocrotaline (MCT) to induces pulmonary arterial hypertension, Compared with normal control group, RVSP and mPAP in MCT rats increased markedly, small pulmonary artery thickened markedly, the cavity of the arteriole narrowed and there was marked infiltration of inflammatory cells of the lung tissue. After Artemisia argyi essential oil was administered, the level of mPAP and mRVP decreased significantly, the LI, RVHI and pulmonary arterial remodeling on MCT-induced PAH in rats improved. The Artemisia argyi essential oil mid-dose and high-dose drug groups, BP dropped markedly, with marked statistical significance (P<0.01; P<0.05); The mid-dose and high-dose could reduce max RVP in MCT-induced rats; Compared with the model group, wW and LI in the low-dose group decreased markedly (P<0.01); the RV was improved and the LV+S was decreased significantly in the high-dose drug groups. The transcription level of NF-κB p65and a-SMA in drug groups were significantly higher than the model group, which indicated that the Artemisia argyi essential oil can inhibits NF-kB p65and a-SMA expression.Conclusions:The Artemisia argyi essential oil can reduce the level of mPAP and mRVP, improve the LI, RVHI and pulmonary arterial remodeling and decrease the expression of NF-κB p65, a-SMA in lung tissue. These results indicate that the mechanism of Artemisia argyi essential oil reduced the progression of pulmonary hypertension induced by MCT might be related to the expression of NF-κB p65,α-SMA.