Effects of Long-Term Administration of Bovine Bone Gelatin Peptides on Myocardial Hypertrophy in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats

Figure 1. Effects of long-term oral BGP on myocardial hypertrophy and fibrosis in SHR rats. Note: (A) Heart weight index (HMI) and left ventricular mass index (LVWI) of rats; (B) The levels of ANP and BNP of rats; (C) HE and Masson staining of the left ventricle of rats with the magnification of 1×, 400×, 400× respectively; (D) Cardiomyocyte diameter of rats; (E) Percentage of myocardial fibrosis area of rats. WKY-NCG: 0.9% saline (n = 6), SHR-NCG: 0.9% saline (n = 6), SHR-LPG: low dose BGP group-100 mg/kg BW (n = 6), SHR-HPG: high dose BGP group-200 mg/kg BW (n = 6), SHR-PCG: captopril-10.0 mg/kg BW (n = 6); * and ** indicate significant difference (p < 0.05) and extremely significant difference (p < 0.01) from SHR-NCG group. # and ## indicate significant difference (p < 0.05) and extremely significant difference (p < 0.01) from SHR-PCG group. ++ indicates an extremely significant difference (p < 0.01) from the WKY-NCG group. ns indicates no significant difference between different groups (p > 0.05).

Figure 2. Volcano plots (A) and hierarchical cluster analysis (B) of differentially expressed proteins in rats identified by label-free proteomics. Note: Volcano plots: Compared with SHR-NCG, the differentially expressed proteins in WKY-NCG (A-1), SHR-LPG (A-2), SHR-HPG (A-3), and SHR-PCG (A-4) groups identified by label-free proteomics; The gray points in image (A)(A-1–A-4) represent proteins with insignificant differences. WKY-NCG: 0.9% saline (n = 6), SHR-NCG: 0.9% saline (n = 6), SHR-LPG: low dose BGP group-100 mg/kg BW (n = 6), SHR-HPG: high dose BGP group-200 mg/kg BW (n = 6), SHR-PCG: captopril-10.0 mg/kg BW (n = 6).

Figure 3. GO annotation analysis and signal pathway analysis of differentially abundant proteins in the high-dose BGP group. Note: (A) Go annotation analysis, (B) KEGG pathway analysis, (C) Protein-protein interaction analysis (PPI).

Figure 4. Expression levels of differentially expressed proteins of Ppp1cc (B), Gys1 (C), and Eef2 (D) in rat myocardial tissue. Note: (A) The protein bands (Eef2, Gys1, and Pp1cc) in Western blot analysis; WKY-NCG: 0.9% saline (n = 6), SHR-NCG: 0.9% saline (n = 6), SHR-LPG: low dose BGP group-100 mg/kg BW (n = 6), SHR-HPG: high dose BGP group-200 mg/kg BW (n = 6), SHR-PCG: captopril-10.0 mg/kg BW (n = 6); * and ** indicate significant difference (p < 0.05) and extremely significant difference (p < 0.01) from SHR-NCG group. # and ## indicate significant difference (p < 0.05) and extremely significant difference (p < 0.01) compared to SHR-PCG group. ++ indicates an extremely significant difference (p < 0.01) from the WKY-NCG group. ns indicates no significant difference between different groups (p > 0.05).

Figure 5. Effect of long-term oral administration of BGP on Pi3k/Akt signaling pathway and TGF-β1 level in SHR rats. Note: (A) The protein bands (Pi3k, Akt, and p-Akt) in Western blot analysis; (B) expression levels of TGF-β1; (C) expression levels of Pi3K; (D) expression levels of Akt; (E) expression levels of p-Akt; WKY-NCG: 0.9% saline (n = 6), SHR-NCG: 0.9% saline (n = 6), SHR-LPG: low dose BGP group-100 mg/kg BW (n = 6), SHR-HPG: high dose BGP group-200 mg/kg BW (n = 6), SHR-PCG: captopril-10.0 mg/kg BW (n = 6); * and ** indicate significant difference (p < 0.05) and extremely significant difference (p < 0.01) compared to SHR-NCG group. # and ## indicate significant difference (p < 0.05) and extremely significant difference (p < 0.01) compared to SHR-PCG group. ++ indicates an extremely significant difference (p < 0.01) from the WKY-NCG group. ns indicates no significant difference between different groups (p > 0.05).

Figure 6. The signal pathways of BGP preventing myocardial hypertrophy and myocardial fibrosis in SHR rats.