Fig. 1.

Puerarin attenuates ovariectomy (OVX) and abdominal aortic constriction (AAC)-induced cardiac hypertrophy. a Gross hearts (upper); hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining of longitudinal sections of rat hearts (lower). b H&E staining of sham and OVX + AAC hearts after 8 weeks of treatment with puerarin. Cross-section of the myocardium (upper). Perivascular cardiomyocytes (lower). Images are representative of three independent staining experiments. c Representative images of Masson’s trichrome staining for interstitial fibrosis of the myocardium (upper) and perivascular fibrosis (lower) from three staining experiments. d Dynamics of body weight. e Heart weight/body weight (HW/BW) ratio and heart weight/tibial length (HW/TL) ratio, n = 6–8 rats per group. f Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis of natriuretic peptide A (Nppa) and natriuretic peptide B (Nppb). Data are representative of three independent experiments. OVX, ovariectomy; AAC, abdominal aortic constriction group; OVX + AAC + Pue, puerarin injected-OVX + AAC group; OVX + AAC + E2, E2 injected-OVX + AAC group; OVX + AAC + Fen, fenofibrate injected-OVX + AAC group. Data are presented as the mean ± SD. Statistical significance was determined using one-way ANOVA coupled with Tukey’s multiple comparison post hoc test. ^*P < 0.05 vs. sham group; ^#P < 0.05 vs. OVX + AAC group