Co-treatment Of NaoXinTong And Atorvastatin Reduces Advanced Lesions

Atherosclerosis?AS?is one of the main causes of coronary heart disease?CHD?,and statins is the classic therapy clinically for it reduced the morbidity and mortality of CHD intensively.Buchang Nao XinTong?NXT?,a traditional Chinese medicine,is well known for its cardiovascular protection.In our study,we investigated whether NXT or atorvastatin or their co-treatment can improve the progression of AS and the involved mechanisms.The male ApoE^-/-mice?⁸-weeks old?were divided into four groups.Group one was fed high-fat diet?HFD?for eighteen weeks as control,the other three groups were fed HFD for the first ten weeks,HFD plus NXT or atorvastatin or NXT and atorvastatin were fed respectively in the following eight weeks.The serum and aorta as well as tissue samples were collected for further study until deadline.Results showed that both NXT and atorvastatin enhanced plaque stability by increasing smooth muscle cell/collagen content,and reducing macrophage accumulation and calcification,synergy effects were observed in the co-treatment.In addition,lipid metabolism results demonstrated that NXT moderately increased HDL-cholesterol levels while had little effect on atorvastatin-induced reduction of LDL-C levels.What's more,NXT plus atorvastatin further reduced hepatic triglyceride levels by activating HSL,ATGL and CGI-58 expression while down-regulating DGAT1.The AMPK?pathway was also further activated by the co-treatment.More importantly,the liver injuries caused by atorvastatin,such as hepatic inflammation and elevated serum aminotransferase activities,were substantially attenuated by NXT.Therefore,our study demonstrates that NXT enhances atorvastatin-induced plaque stability,and ameliorates atorvastatin-induced hepatic side effects.