Abstract:Objective To explore the mechanism of Metoprolol on myocardial injury in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) rats through c-fos signaling pathway. Methods Of 150 SPF class male SD rats, 128 rats were given ligation of the anterior descending branch of the left coronary artery to establish AMI animal models, and 22 rats were threaded but not ligated as the sham-operation group. The 90 rats consistent with the AMI model were randomly divided into three groups: a model group, a heparin group and a Metoprolol group, with 30 in each group. After 24 h, the rats in the Metoprolol group were given 0.1% Metoprolol normal saline 10 mg/(kg?d) through gastric lavage at the same time every day, the rats in the heparin group received subcutaneous injection of heparin (1,250 U/kg), and the rats in the remaining group were given equal volume of normal saline for intragastric administration, once a day, all for 4 weeks. At the 48th h and the 4th week after operation, the changes of heart rate (HR), ejection fraction (EF), fraction shortening (FS), left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (LVEDD) and left ventricular endsystolic diameter (LVESD) in the rats were measured by ultrasonography. At the 4th postoperative week, the area of myocardial infarction was measured using Masson method. Apoptotic cells at the edge of myocardial infarction was tested by TUNEL method. qRT-PCR was used to detect the expression levels of c-fos, ERK1 and ERK2 mRNAs. And the protein expression levels of c-Fos, ERK1/2 and p-ERK1/2 were detected using Western blot. Results Compared with the model group, heparin and Metoprolol reduced heart rate significantly at the 48th h and the 4th week after AMI (P < 0.05). In the 4th week after surgery, compared with the model group, the EF and FS values increased (P < 0.05), while LVEDD and LVESD reduced in the heparin group and the Metoprolol group (P < 0.05). The area of myocardial infarction decreased significantly after treatment with heparin or Metoprolol (P < 0.05). After 4 weeks, compared with the model group, blue collagen decreased and myocardial fibrosis level also decreased in the heparin and Metoprolol groups. TUNEL results showed the apoptosis rate of the myocardial cells around the infarction areas of the rats decreased significantly after heparin or Metoprolol treatment (P < 0.05). The results of qRT-PCR showed c-fos, ERK1 and ERK2 mRNA expression levels in the cardiac myocytes of the rats after heparin or Metoprolol treatment were significantly lower than those in the model group (P < 0.05). Western blot showed that ERK1/2 protein expression level had no significant difference among the groups (P > 0.05); however, c-fos and p-ERK1/2 protein expression levels in the rat cardiomyocytes of the heparin and Metoprolol groups were significantly lower than those in the model group (P < 0.05). Conclusions Metoprolol can obviously alleviate myocardial damage after AMI in rats, and the mechanism may be related to the inhibition of p-ERK1/2-c-fos pathway.