Pretreatment of Lycium barbarum polysaccharide reduces H2O2-induced myocardial apoptosis

The study is aimed to explore the effects of Lycium barbarum Polysaccharide (LBP), the main active compound of Lycium barbarum, on H2O2-induced oxidative stress in myocardial cells, thereby to investigate the possibility of LBP to be an effective prophylactic agent for cardiac vascular disease (CVD). In the study, rat myocardial cells were randomly divided into control group, H2O2 model group and three LBP+H2O2 groups. Myocardial viability, cell apoptosis andoxidative stress parameters were detected. Real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR (RT-PCR) and Western blot were applied to investigate the influences of LBP pretreatment on apoptosis regulator proteins B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) and Bcl-2-associated X (Bax) expression and NF-E2 p45-related factor 2 (Nrf2)/antioxidant responsive element (ARE) signaling pathway. The results revealed that LBP pretreatment significantly attenuated the increased myocardial apoptosis in H2O2-induced oxidative stress by activating the Nrf2 signaling pathway and endogenous antioxidants. It suggested that LBP has great potential to be an antioxidant to protect people from oxidative stress induced CVD.