Insights of Chinese medicine on ventricular remodeling: Multiple-targets, individualized-treatment

Ventricular remodeling (VR) can be induced by myocardial injury, leading to progressive cardiac dysfunction and heart failure, and is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Despite being studied for more than 3 decades, current therapeutic strategies still remain unsatisfactory in effificacy, expensive, and with side effects and drug resistances. Chinese medicine (CM) has been used to treat heart diseases for thousands of years. This article reviews the published studies on the mechanisms and therapeutic applications of CM in VR. The major aspects include: mechanistic studies of VR, molecular biology and myocardial functional studies of CM therapies on VR, and mechanism of CM therapies on VR.