[Role of macrophages in heart failure and traditional Chinese medicine intervention].

As the disease with high morbidity and mortality in the world, heart failure affects the development of human society. Due to its complicated pathology and limited treatment options, it is urgent to discover new disease targets and develop new treatment strategies. As innate immune cells accompanied by the evolution of heart failure, macrophages play an important role in cardiac homeostasis and stress. In recent years, the role of macrophages in the heart has attracted more and more attention as a potential target for heart failure intervention, and the research on cardiac macrophages has made important progress. Traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) has significant effects on regulating inflammatory response, treating heart failure, and maintaining homeostasis. In this article, researches on the functions of cardiac macrophages and application of TCM were reviewed from the source and classification of cardiac macrophages and the relationship of macrophages and cardiac inflammation, myocardial fibrosis, cardiac angiogenesis, and cardiac electrical conduction, which provided a basis for further basic research and clinical applications.

[Mechanism of Jiming Powder in ameliorating heart failure with preserved ejection fraction based on metabolomics].

In this study, untargeted metabolomics was conducted using the liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry(LC-MS/MS) technique to analyze the potential biomarkers in the plasma of mice with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction(HFpEF) induced by a high-fat diet(HFD) and nitric oxide synthase inhibitor(Nω-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester hydrochloride, L-NAME) and explore the pharmacological effects and mechanism of Jiming Powder in improving HFpEF. Male C57BL/6N mice aged eight weeks were randomly assigned to a control group, a model group, an empagliflozin(10 mg·kg~(-1)·d~(-1)) group, and high-and low-dose Jiming Powder(14.3 and 7.15 g·kg~(-1)·d~(-1)) groups. Mice in the control group were fed on a low-fat diet, and mice in the model group and groups with drug intervention were fed on a high-fat diet. All mice had free access to water, with water in the model group and Jiming Powder groups being supplemented with L-NAME(0.5 g·L~(-1)). Drugs were administered on the first day of modeling, and 15 weeks later, blood pressure and cardiac function of the mice in each group were measured. Heart tissues were collected for hematoxylin-eosin(HE) staining to observe pathological changes and Masson's staining to observe myocardial collagen deposition. Untargeted metabolomics analysis was performed on the plasma collected from mice in each group, and metabolic pathway analysis was conducted using MetaboAnalyst 5.0. The results showed that the blood pressure was significantly lower and the myocardial concentric hypertrophy and left ventricular diastolic dysfunction were significantly improved in both the high-dose and low-dose Jiming Powder groups as compared with those in the model group. HE and Masson staining showed that both high-dose and low-dose Jiming Powder significantly alleviated myocardial fibrosis. In the metabolomics experiment, 23 potential biomarkers were identified and eight strongly correlated metabolic pathways were enriched, including linoleic acid metabolism, histidine metabolism, alpha-linolenic acid metabolism, glycerophospholipid metabolism, purine metabolism, porphyrin and chlorophyll metabolism, arachidonic acid metabolism, and pyrimidine metabolism. The study confirmed the pharmacological effects of Jiming Powder in lowering blood pressure and ameliorating HFpEF and revealed the mechanism of Jiming Powder using the metabolomics technique, providing experimental evidence for the clinical application of Jiming Powder in treating HFpEF and a new perspective for advancing and developing TCM therapy for HFpEF.

[Common anti-inflammatory effects of heat-clearing and toxin-removing Chinese medicines on diverse cardiovascular diseases].

Cardiovascular diseases seriously affect human health and their prevalence continues to increase with the aging of the population. The integrated therapy of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) and western medicine for cardiovascular diseases has achieved certain results, but it is still faced with new challenges. Studies have shown that inflammation plays an important role in the development of cardiovascular diseases and some of these mechanisms have common features. For example, in cardiovascular diseases, C-C motif chemokine receptor 2(CCR2)-expressing macrophages increase and promote inflammation, and excessive activation of NOD-like receptor protein 3(NLRP3) inflammasome leads to the elevation of inflammatory factors. There is also new understanding of the pathogenesis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases in TCM. The heat-toxicity theory in cardiovascular diseases and the therapeutic principle of clearing heat and removing toxin have attracted attention. The clinical and pharmacological studies on the treatment of cardiovascular diseases such as Huanglian Jiedu Decoction and Simiao Yong'an Decoction are also gradually increasing. The present study analyzed the common features of the inflammatory response mechanisms in diverse cardiovascular diseases and discussed the significance of the prevention and treatment of diverse cardiovascular diseases by the treatment method of clearing heat and removing toxin to regulate inflammation, which is expected to provide new ideas and references for clinical treatment and drug research on cardiovascular diseases with the same treatment method for different diseases.