[Effects of low-concentrations alcohol consumption on the expression of mitofusin-2 in myocardial injury of diabetic rats].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effects of low-concentrations of alcohol consumption on the expression of mitofusin-2 (mfn2) in myocardial injury of diabetic rats. METHODS: Diabetic rat model was simulated by intraperitoneal injection of 55 mg/kg streptozotocin (STZ) and divided into control group, diabetes mellitus(DM) and diabetes+ethanol (DM+EtOH) groups (n=6). When diabetic model was suc-ceed, daily consumption of 2.5% ethanol was used in ethanol+diabetic group after one week, then changed to 5% ethanol continued until 8 weeks. Eight weeks after the modeling, heart perfusion ex vivo. The ventricular hemodynamic parameters were recorded, the serum levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) were determined by automatic biochemistry analyzer, the mfn2 protein ex-pression of left anterior myocardium was evaluated by Western blot and immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: Compared with control group, the left ventricular development pressure (LVDP), heart rate (HR) and rate pressure product (RPP) were decreased, however, left ventricular and diastolic pressure (LVEDP) and LDH, AST release were increased, the expression of mfn2 protein was decreased in DM group. Compared with DM group, LVDP, HR and RPP and the expression of mfn2 protein were increased, LVEDP and LDH, AST were decreased in DM+E-tOH group. CONCLUSIONS: The expression of mfn2 protein was decreased in myocardial injury of diabetic rats, low-concentrations of alcohol consumption increased the expression of mfn2. It suggests that mfn2 may be participated in the cardiac protective role of low-concentrations al-cohol intervene in diabetic rat.