Abstract
Adriamycin (ADR) is an antitumor antibiotic drug has been shown to be highly effective in the treatment of cancer and a variety of malignant. However, the successful use of ADR has been hampered by its cardiotoxicity, which mediated through oxidative stress. Hibiscus Sabdariffa (HS) has shown to possess powerful antioxidant properties. This study aimed to investigate the impact of HS extract (HSE) against ADR-induced cardiotoxicity in male rats. The study was conducted on four groups; control, ADR (10 mg/kg), and HSE+ADR groups 500 and 750 (mg/kg), rats received HSE for 1 week before ADR injection. After 3 days from ADR injection, rats were subject to electrocardiography (ECG) analysis, and plasma were separation for determination of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and creatine kinase (CK-MB). Heart tissues were subjected for determination of malondialdehyde (MDA) level and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity, as well as examined microscopically. Results revealed that, treatment of rats with ADR significant increased heart rate, ST height, QT interval and T amplitude, as well as increased LDH and CK-MB, while it decreased QRS interval. Cardiac MDA level was significant increase with significant decrease in GPx activity as compared with control rats. Pretreatment of ADR-treated rats with HSE resulted in significant improvement in ECG readings and tested heart enzymes, as well as normalize cardiac contents of MDA and GPx as compared with ADR group. Histopathological examination of heart sections revealed that, ADR injection caused many myocardial injury, while HSE pretreatment showed either mild or slight congestion of myocardial blood vessels at low dose (500 mg/kg) or no histopathological change at high dose (750 mg/kg). These results suggested that, HSE is effective in ameliorated ADR-induced cardiotoxicity in male rats, probably through its active compounds that have antioxidant properties.