The effect of berberine on arrhythmia caused by stretch of myocardium, in vitro, of rats after myocardial ischemia

Objective To study the effect of berberine on arrhythmia caused by stretch of rats' myocardium,in vitro,after myocardial ischemia (MI) for 30 min.Methods The study was carried out in the laboratory of Heilongjiang traditional Chinese medicine university.A total of 40 Wistar rats were randomly (random number) divided into 4 groups,namely normal control group,berberine group、MI group and MI + berberine group.After perfusion of rat' s heart with Langendorff perfusion device,the model of MI was made with ligation of left anterior descending branch for 30 min.Berberine was dissolved in Tyrode' s solution to a concentration of 300 μmol/L.The hearts were stretched for 5 s by 0.2 ml.The effect of stretching was observed for 30 s to record 90％ monophasic action potential (MAPD90),premature ventricular beats (PVB) and ventricular tachycardia (VT).Quantitative data were compared with ANOVA.Qualitative data were compared with a x2 test.Differences with a value of P ＜ 0.05 were considered statistically significant.Results MAPD90 in normal control and MI group obviously prolonged after the hearts were stretched ( P ＜ 0.01 ).And MAPD90 in MI group was even longer than that of normal control group (P＜0.05).Berberine had no influence on MAPD90 before myocardiuml stretched (P ＞0.05),while it could reduce the degree of prolongation in MAPD90 after myocardium stretched (P ＜ 0.05 or P ＜0.01 ).The incidence rate of PVB and VT in normal control and MI group increased after stretched.The berberine in dose of 300 μmol/L could reduce the incidence of PVB and obviously inhibit the occurrence of VT ( P ＜ 0.01 ).Conclusions Berberine could obviously inhibit the occurrence of stretch-inducedarrhythmias after myocardial infarction. Key words: Berberine; Mechanoelectric feedback; Monophasic action potential; Myocardial infarction; Arrhythmias