Protective effect of TFGs on myocardium of diabetic rats and its mechanism

To investigate the protective effect of Trigonella foenum greacum.L Saponin (TFGs) on myocardial tissue of rats with experimental diabetes mellitus induced by streptozotocin (STZ) and its mechanism. A total of 42 Wistar rats were enrolled in the study, 10 of them were set as normal controls, others were injected STZ to establish the animal model of diabetes mellitus, and then they were randomly divided into TFGs-treated group and untreated group. Blood sugar, blood lipids, cardiac function and collagen content in the myocardium were measured after 12 weeks, and myocardial connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) was detected by immunohistochemisty and RT-PCR at the same time. Compared with that in the control group, the collagen content in the myocardium in the untreated group was significantly higher, the cardiac function was impaired, and the expressions of myocardial CTGF protein and mRNA in the untreated group were respectively 1.02±0.10 and 23.60±1.84, which were more than those in normal controls and treated group (P<;0.01). Long lasted hyperglycemia should lead to the interstitial remodeling of myocardium, the dysfunction of cardiac function and the increase of CTGF expression. TFGs could inhibit the transcription of CTGF gene and the expression of the protein, and reduce the collagen content in the myocardium to alleviate the pathological change of cardiomyopathy resulting from diabetes mellitus and improve the cardiac function.