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Logo of bmcamBioMed Centralsearchsubmit a manuscriptregisterthis articleBMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine
 
BMC Complement Altern Med. 2012; 12: 53.
Published online 2012 April 25. doi:  10.1186/1472-6882-12-53
PMCID: PMC3453499
Copyright ©2012 Chen et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
The protective effects of ginsenoside Rg1 against hypertension target-organ damage in spontaneously hypertensive rats
Hui Chen,#1,2 Jun Yin,#2 Yanpin Deng,1 Min Yang,1 Lingling Xu,1 Fukang Teng,1,2 Defang Li,1 Yufan Cheng,3 Sha Liu,4 Dong Wang,2 Tingting Zhang,1,2 Wanying Wu,1 Xuan Liu,1 Shuhong Guan,1 Baohong Jiang,corresponding author1 and Dean Guocorresponding author1
1Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Haike Road #501, Shanghai, 201203, China
2Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Wenhua Road #103, Shenyang, 110016, China
3Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Dongan Road #270, Shanghai, 200023, China
4School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Dongfang Road #1630, Shanghai, 200127, China
corresponding authorCorresponding author.
#Contributed equally.
Hui Chen: chenhui_luo/at/163.com; Jun Yin: yinjun826/at/sina.com; Yanpin Deng: shimbiro/at/sina.com; Min Yang: m_yang/at/mail.shcnc.ac.cn; Lingling Xu: candyxll/at/163.com; Fukang Teng: fineskypig1983/at/163.com; Defang Li: lidefang/at/163.com; Yufan Cheng: chengyufan2009/at/163.com; Sha Liu: drliusha/at/163.com; Dong Wang: dongwang/at/syphu.edu.cn; Tingting Zhang: tingyu3160/at/163.com; Wanying Wu: wanyingwu/at/mail.shcnc.ac.cn; Xuan Liu: xuanliu/at/mail.shcnc.ac.cn; Shuhong Guan: sh_guan/at/mail.shcnc.ac.cn; Baohong Jiang: jiangbh/at/mail.shcnc.ac.cn; Dean Guo: daguo/at/mail.shcnc.ac.cn
Received July 20, 2011; Accepted April 3, 2012.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Background
Although a number of medicines are available for the management of hypertension, the organ damage induced by hypertension is not resolved. The aim of this study was to investigate the protection of ginsenoside Rg1 (Rg1) against vascular remodeling and organ damage in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR).
Methods
Male SHR were treated with 5, 10 or 20 mg/kg Rg1 through intraperitoneal injection per day for 1 month. SHR or Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY) receiving vehicle (saline) was used as control. Blood pressure detection and pathological stain, transmission electron microscope, immunohistochemical assay were used to elucidate the protection of Rg1.
Results
Blood pressures were not different between control SHR rats and Rg1 treated SHR rats, but Rg1 improved the aortic outward remodeling by lowering the lumen diameter and reducing the media thickness according the histopathological and ultrastructural detections. Rg1 also protected the retinal vessels against inward remodeling detected by immunohistochemical assay. Furthermore, Rg1 attenuated the target heart and kidney damage with improvement on cardiac and glomerular structure.
Conclusions
These results suggested that Rg1 held beneficial effects on vascular structure and further protected against the organ-damage induced by hypertension. These findings also paved a novel and promising approach to the treatment of hypertensive complications.
Keywords: Hypertension, Hypertensive complication, Ginsenoside Rg1, Vascular remodeling
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