The purpose of this study was to assess the synergistic effect of
polydatin and
vitamin C on attenuating
cardiotoxicity induced by
doxorubicin (DOX) in rats.
Polydatin could significantly increase the activity of
superoxide dismutase (SOD) and the heart rate, attenuate myocardial pathological damage, decrease
malondialdehyde (MDA) content, slightly increase arterial pressure and
glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity, reduce intervals of QRS, QT, and ST, and lower
free fatty acid (FFA) content. The combination of
polydatin and
vitamin C could significantly increase arterial pressure and heart rate, decrease QRS interval and slightly reduce ST and QT intervals, significantly attenuate myocardial pathological damage, increase the activities of GSH-Px,T-SOD, Na+ K+ -
ATPase, and
Ca2+ Mg2+ -ATPase, elevate
phosphocreatine (PCr) and
adenosine triphosphate (
ATP) contents, slightly increase
adenosine diphosphate (
ADP) and total
adenine nucleotide (TAN) contents and PCr/
ATP, and significantly decrease the contents of MDA and FFA, when compared with those in the DOX group. Meanwhile, the improvement effects on FFA content, the activities of
ATPase and SOD, and contents of
ATP and TAN in combination group were more obvious than those in
polydatin group, and the improvement effects on arterial pressure, heart rate, interval of QRS, GSH-Px activity, and MDA,
ADP, and PCr contents in combination group were slightly obvious when compared with those in
polydatin group. In addition, the
mRNA expression levels of AMPK-α2 and
PPAR-α were slightly improved in combination group. The results illustrate that the combination of
polydatin and
vitamin C has the ability to enhance the myocardial protective effects by its antioxidative effect and improve energy metabolism.