Abstract:
Indonesian herbal medicine Centella asiatica, Justicia gendarussa and
Imperata cylindrica decoction (CJID) are known to be efficacious for hypertension.
Oxidative stress plays an important role in hypertension-induced left ventricular
hypertrophy (H-LVH). This study evaluated whether CJID inhibit cardiac remodeling
in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) through mechanism of oxidative stressrelated cardiac-NADPH oxidase (NOXs) pathway: NOX1, NOX2 and NOX4. Forty-weeksold SHRs and normotensive-WKY rats, were both randomly divided into 2 groups:
CJID and control. All rats were treated for 5 weeks. Systolic blood pressure (SBP)
and heart rate (HR) were measured. LV morphology, function and performance were
assessed by histological staining and echocardiography. Serum and cardiac superoxide
dismutase (SOD) activity and malondialdehyde (MDA) content were assessed. Cardiac
superoxide and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) productions, protein expressions of SOD2,
SOD3, NOX1, NOX2 and NOX4 were also determined. We found that SBP and HR
were significantly decreased in SHRs-treated group. Echocardiography showed that
CJID significantly improved LV morphometry and function. CJID decreased MDA level,
but increased SOD activity. Cardiac superoxide and H2O2 generation were decreased
in SHRs-treated group. CJID caused cardiac SODs expressions to be increased but
NOXs expressions to be suppressed. In conclusion, CJID prevents H-LVH by reducing
reactive oxygen species production via the NOXs-dependent pathway.
