Anthocyanins protected hearts against ischemic injury by reducing MMP-2 activity via Akt/P38 pathways.

Growing evidences suggest that there are close associations between anthocyanins and cardiac protection. However, little is known about the detailed roles of anthocyanins in regulating extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling. Incubation of primary cultured fibroblasts with anthocyanins reduced both intracellular collagen expression and extracellular collagen secretion. Down-regulation of collagen production was also shown in infarcted cardiac tissues after permanent coronary artery ligation in mice treated with anthocyanins. The phosphorylation levels of Akt and/or P-38 were significantly increased by anthocyanins supplementation in primary cultured fibroblasts. Gelatin zymography analysis of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) activity in conditioned medium collected from fibroblasts demonstrated that anthocyanins treatment significantly reduced MMP-2 activity. These results demonstrated that anthocyanins play a role in mediating myocardial ECM remodeling and that the Akt/P-38 pathways mediate these protective effects on hearts.