Abstract
Aim: The cardiotoxicity effect of doxorubicin (DOX), a widely used antitumor agent has
restricted its clinical application. The aim of the current study was to explore the
potential protective effect of mangiferin, a naturally occurring glucosylxanthone,
that have antioxidant activity by its iron-complexing ability in mitochondria, against
DOX-induced cardiac toxicity in rats in comparison with other antioxidants namely
Sylimarin (SYL) and Vitamin E (VitE).
Methods: Mangiferin was given orally to rats at a dose of 50, and 100 mg/kg for 5 weeks, and
DOX was injected at a total dose of 15 mg/kg. Cardiac toxicity was evaluated by lactate
dehydrogenase and creatine kinase in the serum, malondialdehyde (MDA) level in plasma
and cardiac tissue, and antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD) in cardiac tissue.
Results: Mangiferin protected against DOX-induced increased mortality and electrocardiogram
abnormality and decreased biochemical markers of cardiac toxicity i. e., lactate dehydrogenase
and creatine phosphokinase isoenzyme. In addition, elevation of plasma and cardiac
tissue levels of MDA in response to DOX treatment were significantly attenuated. The
reduction of cardiac activity of SOD was significantly reduced in contrast with the
other antioxidant SYL and Vit E. Histopathologically, mangiferin treatment showed
significant reduction in inflammatory cell number, fibrotic area, and necrotic foci
as compared with DOX only-treated rats.
Conclusion: These results suggested that mangiferin had better protective effect against DOX-induced
cardiac toxicity in comparison with SYL and VitE, thus besides the antioxidant activity,
different mechanism may be involved in the action of mangiferin and need to be clarified
in the future studies.
Key words
mangiferin - doxorubicin - cardiotoxicity - antioxidant
