Protective Effects of a Novel Panax Ginseng and Salvia Miltiorrhiza Mixture on Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Acute Cardiac Dysfunction in Rats

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a novel mixture consisting of Panax ginseng (PG) and Salvia miltiorrhiza bunge (SM) could attenuate the deleterious effects of lipopolysaccharides (LPS) on myocardial function. Twenty-four male rats were weight-matched and assigned into three groups: 1) placebo control (Control), 2) placebo with acute LPS challenge (LPS; 0.5 mg LPS/kg), and 3) a GD mixture (PG: 150 mg/kg; SM: 150 mg/kg; total dose: 300 mg/kg for a week; 0.5 mg LPS/kg) with LPS challenge (GD+LPS). Animals were treated with either placebo or the GD mixture in accordance with experimental design for another 7 days. On the experiment day, the blood samples were collected at baseline, 2 h and 4 h after LPS injection, and the echocar-diographic data were measured at baseline and 3.5 h after LPS injection. One-week GD mixture supplementation significantly preserved declines in left ventricular stroke volume (LVSV) and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) after LPS treatment (P ＜ 0.05). The GD mixture significantly diminished LPS-induced secretion of interleukin-6 (IL-6) (P ＜ 0.05) but not that of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and the LVEF inversely correlated to the increase in circulating IL-6 after LPS challenge (r = -0.513, P = 0.012). The GD mixture had slight but not significant effects on attenuating the LPS-induced in myocardial glyceraldehyde-3-Phosphate de-hydrogenase (GAPDH) expression after LPS challenge. In conclusion, one-week GD mixture supple-mentation significantly preserved left ventricular systolic function after LPS challenge. Moreover, the GD mixture diminished the LPS-induced increase in IL-6 but had no effects on LPS-induced increases in TNF-α.