Isorhamnetin protects rat ventricular myocytes from ischemia and reperfusion injury

Abstract Ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) has been known to cause damages to ventricular myocytes. Isorhamnetin, one member of flavonoid compounds, has cardioprotective effect, the effect that suggests a possible treatment for I/R damages. In the present investigation, we found that isorhamnetin could significantly promote the viability of neonatal rat ventricular myocytes that were exposed to ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) in vitro. Ventricular myocytes were obtained from neonatal SD rats, and then were divided randomly into three groups, namely I/R−/isor−, I/R+/isor− and I/R+/isor+ group. Before the whole experiment, the most appropriate concentration of isorhamnetin (4 μM) was determined by MTT assay. Our results showed that isorhamnetin could alleviate the damages of I/R to ventricular myocytes through inhibiting lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity, and repressing apoptosis. Compared with the counterpart of the I/R+/isor− group, LDH activity in the isorhamnetin-treated group weakened, halving from 24.1±2.3 to 11.4±1.2 U/L. Additionally, flow cytometry showed the apparently increased apoptosis rate induced by I/R, the result that was further confirmed by transmission electron microscope. Administration of isorhamnetin, however, assuaged the apoptosis induced by I/R. Corresponding to the reduced apoptosis rate in the I/R+/isor+ group, western blotting assay showed increased amount of Bcl-2 and p53, decreased amount of Bax, and nuclear accumulation of NF-κB/p65.