Protective effects of ginsenoside Rg2 against H2O2-induced injury and apoptosis in H9c2 cells.

Ginsenoside Rg2 is one of the major active components of ginseng and has many biological activities. This study aimed to investigate the protective effects of ginsenoside Rg2 against H2O2-induced injury and apoptosis in H9c2 cells. The results showed that pretreatment with ginsenoside Rg2 not only increased cell viability, but also decreased lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release. Ginsenoside Rg2 inhibited the decrease of SOD, GSH-PX activities and the increase of MDA content induced by H2O2. Meanwhile, the levels of ROS generation and cardiomyocyte apoptosis in ginsenoside Rg2 group significantly reduced when compared with the model group. Western blot analyses demonstrated that ginsenoside Rg2 up-regulate level of Bcl-2 expression and down-regulate levels of Bax, Caspase-3, -9 expression. These findings indicated that ginsenoside Rg2 could protect H9c2 cells against H2O2-induced injury through its actions of anti-oxidant and anti-apoptosis.