Protective effects of Korean herbal remedy against oxidative stress in cardiomyocytes.

Ondamtanggagambang (ODG) has been used as a prescription for psychological anxiety and depression in Korean medicine. In this study, we found that ODG have protective effects against oxidative stress in cardiomyocytes. Pretreatment with ODG extract prevented H2O2 and ZnCl2-induced cell damage in H9c2 cardiomyocytes, whereas simultaneous treatment of ODG extract did not. The protective effect of ODG extract on oxidative stress-induced damage was suppressed significantly by heme oxygenase (HO) inhibitors, zinc protoporphyrin-IX (ZnPP-IX, p < 0.01) and tin protoporphyrin-IX (SnPP-IX, p < 0.01) in H9c2 cells. ODG stimulation of cells strongly induced the expression of HO-1 protein. Taken together, it is suggested that ODG-induced expression of HO-1 may have a beneficial role in cardiomyocytes under oxidative stress. Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.