Objective: To investigate the effect of Renshen Jianxin (RSJX) capsule on neuroendocrine activation in rat chronic congestive heart failure (CHF). Method: The rat CHF model was established by intraperitoneal injection of adriamycin(ADM) once a week for 6 weeks. From the fifth week rats were given cold herbal compound for 7 days. Fifty Wistar rats were divided into five groups at random including:normal group

model group

captopril group

low dose and high dose.Groups of RSJX after 2 weeks

the circulatory level of nitric oxide (NO)

endothelin (ET)

angiotensin Ⅱ (AngⅡ)

interleukin (IL)-6

tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α) in blood of rats

cardiac index and cardiac muscle pathology were analyzed. Result: Compared with normal group

the heart weight(HW)(P<0.05)

left ventricle weight (LVW)(P<0.01)

index of LVW (LVW/BW) and HW (HW/BW) of model group were increased obviously(P<0.01). Compared with model group

RSJX capsule could reduce LVW/BW (P<0.01) and HW/BW (P<0.01)

decrease the circulatory level of ET (P<0.01)

IL-6 (P<0.01)

AngⅡ(P<0.01) and NO (P<0.01)

and the high dose group was better than the low dose group (P<0.01). The pathological section of cardiac muscle showed that RSJX capsule could protect the cardiac muscle by improving the degeneration of the cardiac cell and reducing the inflammatory cell infiltration. Conclusion: RSJX capsule can improve the left ventricular hypertrophy in CHF rats caused by ADM with the possible mechanism of regulating the neuroendocrine activation and also can protect cardiac damage caused by ADM.