Efficacy of grape seed proanthocyanidins on serum and heart tissue lipids in rats subjected to isoproterenol-induced myocardial injury.

The present study was aimed to evaluate the preventive role of grape seed proanthocyanidins (GSPs) on serum and tissue lipid enzymes in isoproterenol (ISO)-induced myocardial injury in male Wistar albino rats. GSP was administered orally to rats (150-180 g) in three different doses, by gastric gavage (50, 100 and 150 mg/kg GSP), 6 days a week for 5 weeks. At the end of this period, all the rats, except the normal untreated rats that served as the control group, were administered ISO, 85 mg/kg subcutaneously, for 2 consecutive days to induce myocardial injury. After 48 h, rats (n=6 per group) were anesthetized with anesthetic ether, sacrificed and the levels of biochemical observations of the serum and heart tissues were performed. Biochemical assessment of myocardial injury was done by measuring the activities of serum thiobarbituric acid reactive substances and plasma lactate, which were significantly elevated in the rats administered with ISO. Further, our results suggest that prior administration of GSPs significantly maintained the cholesterol, phospholipids, triglycerides, and free fatty acids levels in serum and heart tissue of the ISO-induced myocardial injury in rats. The experiments conclude that GSPs possess cardioprotective and hypolipidemic effect on the treatment of ISO-induced myocardial injury.