Fig 1.
HPLC Chromatographic analysis and the chemical structure of Ilexsaponin A.
A. Chemical structure of Ilexsaponin A B. HPLC Chromatographic analysis of Ilexsaponin A
Fig 2.
The effect of Ilexsaponin A treatment on infarct size and myocardial marker enzyme leakage in injured hearts induced by ischemia/reperfusion.
A. Representative photographs of heart sections. Blue-stained region indicates non-ischemic, normal region; red-stained region indicates ischemic/reperfused but not infarcted region; and negative-stained region indicates ischemic/reperfused infarcted region. B. Quantification of myocardial infarct size expressed as percentage of area-at-risk(AAR). C. Serum CK-MB level D. Serum LDH level E. Serum AST level; AL: ilexasaponin A (10mg/kg), AH: ilexasaponin A (40mg/kg), P<0.05 versus SHAM (**) and versus I/R (##). Bars represent SD; n = 6–8 hearts per /group.
Fig 3.
The effect of Ilexsaponin A on caspase-3, cleaved caspase-3, Bax, Bcl-2, p-Akt and Akt expression in injured hearts induced by ischemia/reperfusion.
A. Representative blots. B. Relative density refers to the ratio of caspase-3, Bax, Bcl-2 and p-Akt. AL: ilexasaponin A (10mg/kg), AH: ilexasaponin A (40mg/kg), P<0.05 versus CON (**) and versus H/R (##). Bars represent SD; n = 3.
Fig 4.
The effect of Ilexsaponin A on cell viability and apoptosis in hypoxia/ reoxygenation treated cardiomyocytes.
A. Cell viability was determined by MTT and was calculated by dividing the optical density of samples with the optical density of control. B. Representative photomicrographs of apoptotic cardiomyocytes determined by TUNEL staining. Green fluorescence shows TUNEL-positive nuclei; blue fluorescence shows nuclei of total cardiomyocytes. Bars are 200 μm. C. Percentage of TUNEL-positive nuclei. H/R, hypoxia-reoxygenation treatment group (4h/4h); AL, Ilexsaponin A 10μg/ml treated for 24h; AM, Ilexsaponin A 50μg/ml treated for 24h; AH, Ilexsaponin A 250μg/ml treated for 24h; P<0.05 versus CON (**) and versus H/R (##). Bars represent SD; n = 8.
Fig 5.
The effect of Ilexsaponin A on caspase-3, cleaved caspase-3, Bax, Bcl-2, p-Akt and Akt expression in hypoxia/ reoxygenation treated cardiomyocytes.
A. Representative blots of caspase-3, cleaved caspase-3, Bax and Bcl-2. B. Relative density refers to the ratio of caspase-3, cleaved caspase-3, Bax, Bcl-2 to actin. C. Representative blots of p-Akt and Akt. D. Relative density refers to the ratio of p-Akt to Akt. H/R, hypoxia-reoxygenation treatment group (4h/4h); AL, Ilexsaponin A 10μg/ml treated for 24h; AM, Ilexsaponin A 50μg/ml treated for 24h; AH, Ilexsaponin A 250μg/ml treated for 24h; P<0.05 versus CON (**) and versus H/R (##). Bars represent SD; n = 6.