Salvia Miltiorrhizae Bge, a popular Chinese herb has been widely adopted for use in Chinese hospitals for both the prevention and the active management of cardiovascular disease. there is no study on its cardioprotective effects against HF and more importantly, the underlying mechanisms of its beneficial effects by SDF-1/CXCR4 axis remain poorly understood. This study was performed to investigate the protective effects and possible mechanism of aqueous extract of Salvia miltiorrhiza (AESM) on HF rats. In the study, cardioprotective effects of AESM on HF rats was evaluated by herat function, myocardial pathology, myocardial cell proliferation, SDF-1, CXCR4 and Bcl-2 family mRNA expressions. In the experiment, we found that AESM exerted beneficially protective effects on the HF rats, mainly recoverying normal heart function, myocardial pathology and myocardial cell proliferation. The underlying mechanism of these protective effects of AESM appeared to involve improving the SDF-1/CXCR4 axis and Bcl-2 family expressions.

Saponins from Rhizoma Panacis Majoris (SRPM), the bioactive component in Rhizoma Panacis Majoris, have been used extensively as a remedy for liver injury diseases and achieved good clinical efficacy, but the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. The goal of our present study was to further confirm SRPM hepatoprotective effect, and evaluate that whether SRPM attenuate oxidative stress and fibrosis in carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced hepatic injury, based on these results, investigate the probable mechanisms involved. At first, the separation and purification of SRPM were studied. And then, in the animal experiment, the male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into control, model, l-SRPM and h-SRPM group. Hepatic fibrosis model were made according to our previous studies reported. At the same time, the experimental rats were treated respectively with relative drugs, once a day for 8 weeks. Hepatoprotective effects of SRPM were evaluated by liver function, total antioxidant capacity and total-superoxide dismutase, histopathological observations and the hepatic fibrosis relative gene expressions. In the study, we found that SRPM significantly improved liver function, serum antioxidation level, reversed the upregulated α-SMA and TIMP1 mRNA expressions, and further increased the MMP1 mRNA expression. Our studies indicated that SRPM exerted beneficially hepatoprotective effects on the CCl4 induced hepatic fibrosis, mainly enhancing liver tissue antioxidant capacity, reducing the lipid peroxidation of hepatocyte membranes, and then alleviating hepatic fibrosis and hepatic cell death.