Clinical & Experimental Cardiology
Open Access

Abstract

Induction of Substantial Myocardial Regeneration by an Extract of Chinese Herb Rosa laevigata Michx for Repair of Infarcted Heart

Zhou Feng, Zhongyu Li, Sing Li, Mingfeng Tang, Xiaoli Lin, Qiankun Yi, Zhen Zhou, Dianbin Li, Zeli Gao, Yongming Liu, Huiyan Qu, Hua Zhou and Ming Li

Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) is the single largest killer out of all diseases in Europe and in the US. Pathologic cardiac ischemia in CHD triggers a succession of events leading to massive destruction and loss of cardiac tissues. Thus, replacement of the damaged cardiac tissues by newly regenerated myocardium would be a therapeutic ideal for pathology modifying treatment of CHD.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of an active fraction isolated from Chinese herb Rosa laevigata Michx (aFRLM) in therapeutic cardiomyogenesis through promoting substantial regeneration of cardiac tissues in a Myocardial Infarction (MI) animal model.

Our results demonstrated that oral administration of aFRLM to MI animals could significantly improve cardiac functional performance and induce myocardial regeneration replacing the necrosed cardiac tissues in a sub-clinical MI animal model. The property of the aFRLM appears to be entirely novel and may provide a potential therapeutic alternative for MI treatment.