Abstract: AIM: To explore the effect of Carthamus tinctorius extract on left ventricularhypertrophy induced by partly abdominal aortic coarctation operation in Wistarrats and to study the involved mechanism.METHODS: 12 ratswere sham operated when the hypertensive hyper-trophy was inducedwith abdominal aortic coarctation in 40 rats,which were randomly divided into control group,captopril group,Carthamus tinctorius extract grouPone week later.The drugs were given by gastric perfusion once a day for6weeks.The weight of the rat and the left ventricle were measured,cardiac coefficient were calcu-lated and MMP-2,MMP-9 were evaluated by ELISA means.RESULTS: The cardiac coefficient of the control grouPwas significantly increased and the expression of MMP-2,MMP-9wasgreatly enhanced in the control rats.After6weeks treatment with captopril and carthamus tinc-torius extract,cardiac coefficient was significantly attenu-ated as well as the expression of MMP-2,MMP-9 in se-rum respectively.CONCLUSION: Carthamus tinctorius extract can prevent from the remodeling process of ventric-ularmuscles,which might be related with the expressive depression of MMP-2,MMP-9.

Key words: carthamus tinctorius extract, aorta co-arctation, myocardium hypertrophy, matrix metalloprotei-nase