Protective effects of electroacupuncture and Salviae Miltiorrhizae on myocardial ischemia/reperfusion in rabbits.

The aim of present study was to observe the protective effects of electroacupuncture (EA) and Salviae Miltiorrhizae (SM) on myocardial ischemia/reperfusion in rabbits. Acute ischemia/reperfusion of myocardium was set up by ligating left anterior descending branch of coronary artery in 24 rabbits which were divided randomly into control, EA, SM, and EA+SM group. Changes of plasma myocardial zymogram were found after ischemia in these groups. EA and SM were observed to decrease plasma IL-8 and epinephrine concentration and to increase 99mTc-MIBI intake ratio of myocardial mitochondrial, but enhancing or antagonistic effect between EA and SM was negligible. There was positive correlation between concentrations of plasma epinephrine and IL-8. The results indicated that EA and SM could reduce myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury and protect myocardial mitochondrial by reducing concentrations of plasma epinephrine and IL-8. EA and SM could reduce the release of endogenic epinephrine, which was one of the mechanisms of lowering plasma IL-8.