Cardioprotective effect of Acorus calamus against doxorubicin-induced myocardial toxicity in albino Wistar rats

Abstract

Objective: The present study was designed to evaluate the cardioprotective potential of Acorus calamus (AC) on doxorubicin (DOX)-induced myocardial toxicity. Materials and Methods: Albino Wistar rats were used in this study. DOX was administered intraperitoneally in six equal injections (each containing 2.5 mg/kg DOX at 48 h interval) to a total cumulative dose of 15 mg/kg over 2 weeks to produce cardiotoxicity. Control and treated group animals were used for the estimation of lipid and cardiac biomarkers. Animals were sacrificed and heart tissue was used for the assay of glutathione (GSH), malondialdehyde (MDA), catalase (CAT), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) and also for the membrane-bound enzymes namely Na + -K + -ATPase, Ca +2 -ATPase, and Mg +2 -ATPase. The remaining portion of the heart tissue was used for histopathological studies. Results: Pretreatment with AC decreases serum enzyme levels and lipid profiles brought to the near normal values, and it significantly protected the myocardium from the toxic effect of DOX, by increasing the levels of antioxidant enzymes such as GSH, SOD, and CAT toward normal and decreasing the increased level of MDA. AC (200 mg/kg) + DOX showed significant increase in Na + -K + -ATPase and Mg +2 -ATPase and decrease in Ca +2 -ATPase compared to DOX-treated groups. Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that the cardioprotective effect of AC might be attributed to its antioxidant property.

Keywords

• Acorus calamus
• antioxidant
• cardioprotective
• doxorubicin
• free radicals
• membrane-bound enzymes