BACKGROUND: Although puerarin is generally considered as a protective agent for cardio-cerebrovascular diseases, the exact effect on reducing myocardial infarction reperfusion injury (MIRI) is not well understood. This study aimed to pool previous randomized controlled studies based on rat models to evaluate the effects of puerarin on MIRI.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: Relevant studies were searched among PubMed, Embase, Medline, and CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure). To assess the therapeutic effects of protective effects of puerarin on myocardial infarction reperfusion injury, the outcome indicators which were reported in at least 3 original studies were extracted and pooled, including size of myocardial ischemia (MIS) and myocardial infarction (MIN), creatine kinase (CK), methylene dioxyamphetamine (MDA), and superoxide dismutase (SOD).
RESULTS: Administration of puerarin could effectively reduce the size of MIN after MIR (mean difference: –29.20, 95%CI: –44.90 to –13.51, p=0.0003). Puerarin directly led to decreased CK (mean difference: –6.89, 95%CI: –9.40 to –4.38, p=0.00001) and MDA (mean difference: –2.41, 95%CI: –3.14 to –1.68, p<0.00001) and increased serum SOD (mean difference: 63.97, 95%CI: 38.19 to 89.75, p<0.00001).
CONCLUSIONS: Puerarin might have a protective effect in myocardial tissues during MIRI through increasing SOD and decreasing CK and MDA. However, more animal studies and randomized controlled clinical trials are required to confirm these results.

Keywords: Disease Models, Animal, Animals, Isoflavones - pharmacology, Myocardial Infarction - prevention & control, Myocardial Ischemia - prevention & control, Myocardial Reperfusion Injury - prevention & control, Protective Agents - pharmacology, Random Allocation, Rats, Rats, Sprague-Dawley