The Effect Of Puerarin On Inflammatory Vascular Injury

The major functions of puerarin are protection of artery endothelial cell,inhibition of atherosclerosis and thrombosis, improvement of blood circulation,decrease of myocardial oxygen consumption, inhibition of arrhythmia, lowering ofblood pressure, protection of myocardial ultrastucture, and reduction of themyocardial infarction area. Therefore puerarin is very commonly used for protectionagainst cardiovascular disease. Recently, a preponderance of evidence supports thatinflammation plays an important role in a wide range of cardiovascular diseases,especially in the development of atherosclerosis.The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of puerarin onordinary inflammatory injury, including dimethylbenzene induced ear edema and cottonpellet granuloma formation. Placement of an external polyethylene cuff surrounding thefemoral artery elicited vascular injury, RT real-time PCR was employed to detect themRNA expression of COX -2, TNF-α, ICAM-1 and MCP-1. Western Blot wasapplied to detecte the inflammatory factor COX -2 and TNF-α, and then assessed theintimal transformation by histological method.The results showed puerarin produced a significant and dose-dependent inhibition ofthe dimethylbenzene induced ear edema and cotton pellet granuloma formation. Puerarinsignificantly reduced the mRNA expression of COX -2, TNF-αand ICAM-1, andinhibited the COX -2 and TNF-αon protein level. High dose puerarin had significanteffect on inhibition of neointima formation.