Effect of Shenfu Injection on Slow Arrhythmia and Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells

This study is to determine the effect of Shenfu injection (SFI) on the directional differentiation of rabbit bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) into cardiomyocyte-like cells in vitro. Eighteen New Zealand rabbits were randomly divided into the following three groups: control; high-dose SFI; and low-dose SFI. The cells in each group were divided into two sub-groups (A and B) with 3 rabbits. The effect of inducing differentiation was confirmed by cytomorphology, cardiomyocyte-specific protein (troponin-T and alpha-actin), and detection of stem cell factor (SCF) and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF). After 28 days of culture, the cells were stained with HE, and the morphology of cultured BMSCs was similar to cardiomyocytes under light microscopy. Positive intensities of troponin-T in the groups with added SFI and 5-aza were higher than groups with added 5-aza only (p < 0.05); the dose was high, while positive intensity was high. The same results occurred with respect to alpha-actin, but the correlation was poor because alpha-actin is not specific to the myocardium and the sample size was small. The level of SCF in the high-dose SFI group was higher than the control group (p < 0.05). Compared with the high-dose SFI group, the levels of G-CSF were decreased in the low-dose SFI and control groups (p < 0.01). SFI had a stimulating effect on the hematopoietic factors (SCF and G-CSF), which was positively correlated with the drug concentration. In conclusion, SFI combined with 5-aza synergized the directional differentiation of BMSCs into cardiomyocytes and improved the positive rate of cardiomyocyte-like cells.