Objective:To study the protective effect of Danggui Buxuetang on hypertrophic cardiomyocytes and its relationship with phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/serine threonine kinase (Akt)/endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS)-nitric oxide (NO) signal transduction pathway. Method:H9C2 cardiomyocytes were cultured in vitro

α-actin antibody was used to identify cardiomyocytes by immunohistochemistry. Angiotensin Ⅱ (AngⅡ) was used to induce the H9C2 cardiomyocyte hypertrophy model. The total protein content of cardiomyocytes was measured by BCA protein assay. The protein contents of blank group and model group were compared to verify the model of Angiotensin-induced H9C2 cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. The cells were divided into blank group

cell model group

LY294002 blockade group and 10% serum group. Western blot was used to detect relevant protein expressions of p-Akt

Akt

p-eNOS

eNOS and other signaling pathways. Nitric acid reductase assay was used to detect the NO concentration in each cell culture medium. Result:The immunohistochemical method was used to identify that cells and brownish yellow fine particles were located in the cytoplasm. The results were consistent with the characteristics of cardiomyocytes. BCA was used to determine cell protein. Compared with blank group

the content of the histone group was increased(P<0.05). Western blot analysis showed that p-Akt

Akt and eNOS protein expressions in model group were lower than those in blank group (P<0.05)

p-Akt

Akt and eNOS protein expressions in the serum-containing group were higher than those in model group (P<0.05)

LY294002 blockade group removed the effect of the drug-containing serum. Conclusion:Danggui Buxuetang-containing serum has a protective effect on AngⅡ-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. One of its mechanisms may be the regulation of cardiomyocyte PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.