Therapeutic effects of rapamycin on alcoholic cardiomyopathy
- Authors:
- Published online on: August 8, 2017 https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2017.4901
- Pages: 2763-2770
-
Copyright: © Tu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License.
Metrics: Total
Views: 0 (Spandidos Publications: | PMC Statistics: )
Total PDF Downloads: 0 (Spandidos Publications: | PMC Statistics: )
Abstract
The present study aimed to investigate whether rapamycin has therapeutic potential as a treatment for alcoholic cardiomyopathy. Rats were divided into eight groups (n=7 in each group): The control group; the alcohol group; abstinence in the first week; abstinence in the third week; abstinence in the fourth week; abstinent+rapamycin (AB‑RAP) until the first week (AB‑RAP 1); AB‑RAP until the third week (AB‑RAP 3); and AB‑RAP until the fourth week (AB‑RAP 4). Subsequently, echocardiography, and hematoxylin‑eosin and Masson's staining were performed, followed by electron microscopy and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase‑mediated dUTP nick‑end labeling assay. Finally, expression levels of B cell lymphoma‑2, Beclin‑1 and microtubule‑associated protein 1A/1B‑light chain 3 were detected by immunohistochemistry and western blot analysis. The levels of left ventricular end‑diastolic dimension in AB‑RAP 3 (7.00±0.41) and AB‑RAP 4 (6.33±0.68) groups were significantly lower when compared with the alcohol group (8.01±0.30; P<0.05). Compared with the alcohol group, the apoptosis rate of left ventricular myocardial tissue in the AB+RAP 3 (37.68±2.15) and AB+RAP 4 (26.97±2.11) groups was significantly reduced (P<0.05). To conclude, rapamycin may be considered as a therapeutic tool to attenuate alcoholic cardiomyopathy and improve cardiac function through increasing autophagy and reducing apoptosis.