Myocardial ischemia is a disease with high morbidity and mortality, for which reperfusion is currently the standard intervention. However, the reperfusion may lead to further myocardial damage, known as myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury (MI/RI). Oxidative stress is one of the most important pathological mechanisms in reperfusion injury, which causes apoptosis, autophagy, inflammation, and some other damage in cardiomyocytes through multiple pathways, thus causing irreversible cardiomyocyte damage and cardiac dysfunction. This article reviews the pathological mechanisms of oxidative stress involved in reperfusion injury and the interventions for different pathways and targets, so as to form systematic treatments for oxidative stress-induced myocardial reperfusion injury and make up for the lack of monotherapy.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) is the leading cause of high morbidity and mortality worldwide, which emphasizes the urgent necessity to develop new pharmacotherapies. In eastern countries, traditional Chinese medicine Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi has been used clinically for thousands of years. Baicalin is one of the main active ingredients extracted from Chinese herbal medicine S. baicalensis. Emerging evidence has established that baicalin improves chronic inflammation, immune imbalance, disturbances in lipid metabolism, apoptosis and oxidative stress. Thereby it offers beneficial roles against the initiation and progression of CVDs such as atherosclerosis, hypertension, myocardial infarction and reperfusion, and heart failure. In this review, we summarize the pharmacological features and relevant mechanisms by which baicalin regulates CVDs in the hope to reveal its application for CVDs prevention and/or therapy.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and diabetes are the leading causes of death worldwide, which underlines the urgent necessity to develop new pharmacotherapies.