Protective effects of vanillic acid on electrocardiogram, lipid peroxidation, antioxidants, proinflammatory markers and histopathology in isoproterenol induced cardiotoxic rats

Myocardial infarction affects a large proportion in the world. This study aims to evaluate the protective effects of vanillic acid in isoproterenol induced cardiotoxic rats. Male Wistar rats were pretreated with vanillic acid (5 mg and 10 mg/kg) daily for 10 days. After pretreatment, isoproterenol (100 mg/kg) was subcutaneously injected to rats at an interval of 24 h for 2 days to induce cardiotoxicity. Isoproterenol induced cardiotoxic rats showed significant increase in serum cardiac troponins, heart lipid peroxidation and significant decrease in the heart antioxidants. In addition, isoproterenol induced group electrocardiogram showed an elevation in ST segments and increased expressions of interleukin-1 beta, interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha genes in the myocardium. Pretreatment with vanillic acid showed significant protective effects on cardiac troponins, lipid peroxidation, antioxidant system, electrocardiogram and expressions of interleukin-1 beta, interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-a gene in the heart of isoproterenol induced cardiotoxic rats. Histopathology of myocardium correlated with these biochemical findings. The in vitro study also revealed that vanillic acid is a potent free radical scavenger. Thus, vanillic acid exerts protective effects in isoproterenol induced cardiotoxic rats due to its free radical scavenging, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Our study also showed that pretreatment with vanillic acid at the dose of 10 mg/kg was highly effective than 5 mg/kg. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.