Experimental Study On Delaying Atherosclerotic Plaque Formation In Rabbit By Huashi Tongyu Buqi Method

Atherosclerosis (AS) is the pathological basis of acute coronary events and brain stroke.Although, coronary artery interventional therapy and coronary artery bypass graft (CABG)has rescued lives of many myocardial infarction patients, they cannot interrupt theprogression of atherosclerosis. Hence, drug therapy still is the major option for preventionand treatment of atherosclerosis. At present, Western medicine which uses anti-platelets,antioxidant and lipid lowering agents for treatment of atherosclerosis has achieved greatsuccess clinically. But, treatment cost is very expensive, which influences its wide promotionand clinical applications. Because of various aspects of atherosclerosis, we should considermultiple points of inhibiting AS while selecting the drugs. And, multi-target role of Chinesemedicine has provided theoretical feasibility for effective prevention of AS. Recent years,many Chinese medicine has been used for prevention and treatment of AS and its relateddiseases. According to the theory of Chinese medicine, atherosclerosis is the typicalphlegm-blood stasis syndrome. Regarding treatment primarily focus on promoting bloodcirculation and removing stasis, gradually changed to theory of phlegm and treatment of bothphlegm and blood stasis, supplemented with comprehensive treatment of tonifying liver andkidney, invigorating spleen, reducing phlegm, nourishing yin, promoting blood circulationand so on, and has achieved comparatively significant results. Hence, we have usedbianzheng (differentiation) of Chinese medicine–removing dampness, dispersing bloodstasis, tonifying Qi method, compared with PAS therapy of western medicine, and observedthe role of removing dampness, dispersing blood stasis, tonifying Qi method for delayingatherosclerosis plaque formation in high lipid diet fed rabbits.Experimental Objective:The study was to observe the delaying of atherosclerotic (AS) plaque formation in rabbitfed with high lipid diet by Huashi Tongyu Buqi Method.Experimental Methods:Pure bred18New Zealand male white rabbits (4months old) were experimental subjects.After normal feeding for one week, the rats were changed to high lipid diet (1%cholesterol+6%yolk powder+8%lard+85%basic fodder), and they were randomly devided into threegroups: six rabbits in control group（without using any drugs），six rabbits in chinesemedicine group（Heye, Zexie, Huzhang, etc）and six rabbits6rabbits in western medicinegroup (aspirin+atorvastatin+probucol) and observed for three months. After three months,auricular venous blood of each group was drawn and total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), low-density lipoprotein (LDL-C), serum matrix metalloprotinase-9(MMP-9),malondialdehyde（MDA） and ox-LDL were measured, and then rabbits were killed to getaorta. Hematoxylin-eosin staining and immunohistochemistry staining were used to observethe histopathological changes of aorta, atherosclerotic plaque area, intima and vessel wallthickness.The results:TC, TG and LDL-C of Chinese medicine group and western medicine group wassignificantly lower than those of control group (P<0.01), respectively TC（2.39±0.15）mmol/L，(2.08±0.12）mmol/L VS (13.02±0.20）mmol/L，TG（2.58±0.16）mmol/L，（1.90±0.08）mmol/L VS （11.08±0.19）mmol/L，LDL-C （1.05±0.24）mmol/L，（0.85±0.09）mmol/L VS （10.13±0.20）mmol/L，TC and TG of western medicine groupwas much lower than that of Chinese medicine group (P<0.01)；MDA，MMP-9and ox-LDLlevel as compared with control were decreased by different extents （P<0.01）. Aortic intimathickness of Chinese medicine group and western medicine group decreased significantly ascompared with that of control group，（12.28±1.28）μm，（5.20±0.81）μm VS （40.06±3.94）μm （P<0.01），while aortic intima thickness of western medicine group showed moredecrease.Experimental conclusions:1、 PAS therapy of western medicine and Huashi Tongyu Buqi method have role ofdecreasing TC, TG, LDL, ox-LDL, MMP-9and MDAsignificantly.2、 Early intervention by PAS therapy of western medicine and Huashi Tongyu Buqimethod has role of delaying AS plaque formation, and plaque stability.3、Although anti AS plaque formation role of PAS therapy of western medicine is strongerthan Huashi Tongyu Buqi method, but our study has provided theoretical foundation forprimary prevention ofAS by Chinese medicine.