Abstract:Objective To investigate the inhibitory effect and mechanism of edaravone on apoptosis of myocardial cells in rats with myocardial infarction. Methods A total of 50 SD rats were randomly divided into sham operation control group, model control group, low dose edaravone group, medium dose edaravone group and high dose edaravone group. The left anterior descending branches of the coronary artery in rats were ligated to establish myocardial infarction models except those in sham operation group. Rats in low-dose group, medium-dose group and high-dose group were given intraperitoneal edaravone of 1?mg/kg, 3?mg/kg and 6?mg/kg respectively, and rats in sham operation group and model control group were given same volume of normal saline. All test were conducted in 2 hours after operation, and treatment duration continued for 2 weeks. Cardiac structure and function were determined by high resolution of animal ultrasonic instrument; serum myocardial enzyme markers (cTnT, CK-MB, LDH) and antioxidant markers (SOD, MDA and GSH-px) in abdominal aorta blood were determined; myocardial apoptosis indexes were evaluated by TUNEL method; the mRNA expressionof PI3K, and Akt, the Bcl-2 and Bax in myocardium were determined by RT-PCR; the protein expressions of PI3K, Akt, p-Akt, Bcl-2 and Bax were determined by western-blotting. Results Edaravone decreased LVESD and LVEDD in rats with myocardial infarction (P?0.05) and increased LVEF and LVFS (P?0.05) in dose-dependent manner. Edaravone decreased serum levels of cTnT, CK-MB, LDH in rats with myocardial infarction (P?0.05) in dose-dependent manner. Edaravone increased serum levels of SOD and GSH-px (P?< 0.05) and decreased serum level of MDA (P?0.05) in a dose-dependent manner. Edaravone decreased apoptosis index of myocardial cells in rats with myocardial infarction (P?0.05) in a dose-dependent manner; Edaravone increased mRNA expression of PI3K, Akt and Bcl-2 in rats with myocardial infarction (P?0.05) and decreased mRNA expression of Bax (P?0.05) in a dose-dependent manner. Edaravone increased protein expression of PI3K, Akt, p-Akt and Bcl-2 in rats with myocardial infarction (P?0.05), and decreased protein expression of Bax protein (P?0.05) in a dose-dependent manner. Conclusion Edaravone has a heart-protective effect in rats with myocardial infarction and can reduce apoptosis of myocardial cells, improve myocardial antioxidant capacity, and regulate the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.