Department of Cardiology, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, 238 Jiefang Road, Wuchang, Wuhan, 430060, People's Republic of China.
J Mol Histol. 2012 Dec;43(6):737-43. doi: 10.1007/s10735-012-9440-0. Epub 2012 Aug 26.
Inflammation plays an important role in sympathetic remodeling after myocardial infarction (MI), and the inhibition of inflammation has therapeutic benefits that could alleviate the progression of sympathetic remodeling. Recent studies have indicated that the antimalarial agent artemisinin has the ability to inhibit inflammation. In this study, the inhibitory effects of artemisinin on the production of proinflammatory mediators and the number of macrophages were investigated 4 weeks after MI. Our results show that artemisinin significantly inhibited IL-1β and TNF-α protein expression and the infiltration of macrophages. Artemisinin significantly decreased the protein expression of NGF, GAP43, and TH compared with the control group, which was related to sympathetic nerve remodeling. Interestingly, a clear positive correlation was observed between the expression of NGF and GAP43 in our study, and a similar correlation was revealed between NGF and TH. In addition, the densities of both GAP-43- and TH-immunoreactive nerves in the peri-infarct zone were significantly attenuated by artemisinin treatment. Our results suggest that artemisinin is able to inhibit sympathetic remodeling after MI, possibly through an anti-inflammatory effect. The data provide direct evidence of the potential application of artemisinin for the treatment of sympathetic remodeling after MI.
炎症在心肌梗死后交感神经重构中起着重要作用，抑制炎症具有治疗益处，可以减轻交感神经重构的进展。最近的研究表明，抗疟药青蒿素具有抑制炎症的能力。在这项研究中，研究了青蒿素对促炎介质产生和巨噬细胞数量的抑制作用，在心肌梗死后 4 周进行。我们的结果表明，青蒿素可显著抑制 IL-1β 和 TNF-α 蛋白表达和巨噬细胞浸润。与对照组相比，青蒿素显著降低了 NGF、GAP43 和 TH 的蛋白表达，这与交感神经重塑有关。有趣的是，在我们的研究中观察到 NGF 和 GAP43 的表达之间存在明显的正相关，并且在 NGF 和 TH 之间也显示出相似的相关性。此外，青蒿素治疗还明显减弱了梗塞周围区 GAP-43 和 TH-免疫反应性神经的密度。我们的结果表明，青蒿素能够抑制心肌梗死后的交感神经重构，可能通过抗炎作用。该数据为青蒿素治疗心肌梗死后交感神经重构的潜在应用提供了直接证据。
