Effect of methanol extract of Salviae miltiorrhizae Radix in high-fat diet-induced hyperlipidemic mice

• Published in: Chinese medicine Vol. 12; no. 1; p. 29
• Main Authors: Lim, Chiyeon, Lim, Sehyun, Lee, Byoungho, Kim, Buyeo, Cho, Suin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 13.10.2017; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Analysis; Apoptosis; Atherosclerosis; Blood cholesterol; Butanol; Cancer; Carbohydrates; Cardiovascular disease; Cardiovascular diseases; Chinese medicine; Cholesterol; Diabetes; Gene expression; Health aspects; Heart diseases; Herbal medicine; High fat diet; Hyperlipidemia; Ischemia; Laboratories; Lipids; Medical research; Metabolism; Methanol; Nutrition research; Pharmaceutical industry; Reductases; Replication; Risk factors; Rodents; Salviae miltiorrhizae Radix; Studies; Traditional medicine; China; Cardiovascular diseases; Hyperlipidemia; Salviae miltiorrhizae Radix
• ISSN: 1749-8546; 1749-8546
• DOI: 10.1186/s13020-017-0150-0

The dried root of , Salviae miltiorrhizae Radix (SR), is one of the most popular medicinal herbs in Asian countries such as China and Korea. In Asian traditional medicine, SR is considered to have a bitter flavor, be slightly cold in nature, and exert therapeutic actions in the heart and liver meridians. Thus, SR has been used to control symptoms related to cardiovascular diseases. Hyperlipidemia is recognized as the main cause of cerebrovascular and heart diseases; consequently, therapeutic strategies for hyperlipidemia have been widely studied. In this study, the effects and molecular targets of methanol extract of SR (SRme) in hyperlipidemic mice were investigated. High-fat diet was fed to mice to induce hyperlipidemia, and measurement of blood cholesterol and triglycerides were conducted to evaluate the effect of SRme on hyperlipidemic mice, and gene expression in mice liver was analyzed to identify key molecules which could be potential targets for developing anti-hyperlipidemic herbal medicines. There was no significant effect on the body weight gain of hyperlipidemic mice, but the triglyceride content in blood was significantly reduced by the administration of SRme to hyperlipidemic mice. Proteins such as minichromosome maintenance (Mcm) family which play a key role in DNA replication were identified as molecular targets in the amelioration of hyperlipidemia. SRme ameliorated hyperlipidemia in high-fat diet fed mice by inhibiting increase of blood serum level of triglycerides. And several proteins such as Mcm proteins were deduced to be molecular targets in treating hyperlipidemia.