Effects of TFGs on cultured interstitial fibroblasts of rats´ myocardium

To observe effects of trigonella foenum greacum. L Saponin(TFGs) on the proliferation of the interstitial fibroblast of rats´ myocardium(CFs), and the expression of UII-induced TGF-β₁ and CTGF mRNA. The interstitial fibroblasts of rats´ myocardium were cultivated in vitro and identified, and were treated with TFGs whose concentrations is 0, 25, 50, 100 and 200 mg.L^-1 separately. The untreated cells were taken as the control group and UII is used as the stimulating factor. Effects of TFGs on the cell proliferation were examined by MTT assay,and effects of TFGs on mRNA levels of TGF-β₁ and CTGF were measured by RT-PCR. Compared with that of the control group, the proliferation of CFs stimulated by UII increased significantly (P<;0.05) and it could be inhibited by TFGs, which showed concentration-dependent and time-dependent; Results measured by RT-PCR showed that UII can increased the expressions of TGF-β₁ and CTGF mRNA significantly compared with the control group (P<;0.01), and TFGs can attenuated overexpressions of TGF-β₁ and CTGF mRNA induced by UII(P<;0.01, P<;0.05). TFGs can depress CFs proliferation and down-regulate UII-induced TGF-β₁ and CTGF mRNA overexpressions, which suggests that it may be one of mechanisms through which TFGs can be used for the prevention and treatment of myocardial interstitial fibrosis.