Pterostilbene Attenuates Inflammation in Rat Heart Subjected to Ischemia-Reperfusion via eNOS Activation

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether pterostilbene could activate eNOS and reduce neutrophil accumulation and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) induction in an ischemia/reperfusion injured rat heart model. STUDY DESIGN: Rats were randomly exposed to sham operation, myocardial ischemia and reperfitsion (Ml/R), MI/R +pterostilbene, or MI/R+pterostilbene+L-NAME. Myocardial infarct size, apoptosis, TLR4 expression, NF-kappa B expression, myeloperoxidase (MPO) level, and TNF-alpha level were detected. RESULTS: The results demonstrated that after MI/R, the expressions of myocardial TLR4, NF-kappa B, and caspase-3 increased significantly in the ischemia area. Compared with MI/R, pterostilbene significantly attenuated the expressions of TLR4, NF-kappa B, and caspase-3. In addition, it also reduced MPO levels, both serum and myocardial TNF-alpha production, myocardial infarct sizes (INF/AAR%), and myocardial apoptosis induced by MI/R. All the effects of pterostilbene were abolished by L-NAME, a nitric oxide synthase inhibitor. CONCLUSION: These data provide evidence that pterostilbene inhibits inflammation and apoptosis in the rat heart subjected to MI/R via eNOS activation.