Exogenous spermine ameliorates high glucose-induced cardiomyocytic apoptosis via decreasing reactive oxygen species accumulation through inhibiting p38/JNK and JAK2 pathways

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation has been suggested to play a vital role in the initiation and progression of diabetic cardiomyopathy, a major complication of diabetes mellitus. Recent studies reveal that spermine possesses proliferative, antiaging and antioxidative properties. Thus, we hypothesized that spermine could decrease apoptosis via suppressing ROS accumulation induced by high glucose (HG) in cardiomyocytes. Cultured neonatal rat ventricle cardiomyocytes were treated with normal glucose (NG) (5 mM) or HG (25 mM) in the presence or absence of spermine for 48 h. The cell activity, apoptosis, ROS production, T-SOD and GSH activities, MDA content and GSSG level were assessed. The results showed that HG induced lipid peroxidation and the increase of intracellular ROS formation and apoptosis in primary cardiomyocytes. Spermine could obviously improve the above-mentioned changes. Western blot analysis revealed that spermine markedly inhibited HG-induced the phosphorylation of p38/JNK MAPKs and JAK2. Moreover, spermine had better antioxidative and anti-apoptotic effects than N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC). Taken together, the present data suggested that spermine could suppress ROS accumulation to decrease cardiomyocytes apoptosis in HG condition, which may be attributed to the inhibition of p38/JNK and JAK2 activation and its natural antioxidative property. Our findings may highlight a new therapeutic intervention for the prevention of diabetic cardiomyopathy.