: Caveolin-1-deficient (cav1) mice display a severely diseased cardiac phenotype with systolic and
diastolic heart failure. Accumulating evidence supports a causative role of uncoupled
endothelial nitric oxide synthase in the development of these abnormalities. Interestingly, a similar molecular mechanism was proposed for
anthracycline-induced
cardiomyopathy. Currently,
dexrazoxane is approved for the prevention of
anthracycline-induced
cardiomyopathy. Given the molecular similarities between the
anthracycline-induced
cardiomyopathy and the
cardiomyopathy in cav1 mice, we questioned whether
dexrazoxane may also prevent the evolution of the cardiac pathologies in cav1 mice. We evaluated
dexrazoxane treatment for 6 weeks in cav1 mice and wild-type controls. This study provides the first evidence for a reduced
reactive oxygen species formation in the vessels of
dexrazoxane-treated cav1 mice. This reduced oxidative stress resulted in a markedly reduced rate of apoptosis, which finally was translated into a significantly improved heart function in
dexrazoxane-treated cav1 mice. These hemodynamic improvements were accompanied by significantly lowered proatrial
natriuretic peptide levels. Notably, these protective properties of
dexrazoxane were not evident in wild-type animals. Taken together, these novel findings indicate that
dexrazoxane significantly reduces vascular
reactive oxygen species formation cav1. Because this is paralleled by an improved cardiac performance in cav1 mice, our data suggest
dexrazoxane as a novel therapeutic strategy in this specific
cardiomyopathy.