Different Gene Expression Profile in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats Treated with Songling Xuemaikang Capsule

To study in vivo action of Songling Xuemaikang Capsule (SXC), SHRs were orally administration with high- or low-dose of SXC for 28 days.Valsartan, an angiotensin receptor antagonist, is used as a positive control drug in this study and orally administrated for 28 days. The levels of AngII, Aldosterone in serum of SHRs from different groups were analyzed, and gene expression profiling were performed in the thoracic aortakidney of SHRs, using the Whole Rat Genome Oligonucleotide Microarray. The integrated causal network analysis is performed to understand the mechanism of antihypertensive effect of SXC. The results showed that expression of 706 unique genes (p<0.05) were changed (fold change >2.0) in SHRs at a dose of 472.5 mg/kg day SXC when compared with control rats, whereas the expression of 920 unique genes were changed (fold change>2.0) at a dose of 1417.5 mg/kg/day. Those genes are involved in lipid metabolism, complement system induced immune response, inflammation and vascular and endothelial dysfunction. SHRs were randomly divided into three groups : model group (n = 8), rats were orally administered with saline (7.5mL.kg-1) for 4 weeks; SXC low-dose group(n = 6), rats were orally administered with SXC (236.25 mg.kg-1) for 4 weeks; SXC high-dose group (n = 6), rats were orally administered with SXC (708.75 mg.kg-1) for 4 weeks; the positive group (n=8), rats were orally administered with valsartan (21.6mg.kg-1) for 4 weeks.