Diabetic rats are more susceptible to
myocardial ischemia-
reperfusion injury than control rats. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the cardioprotective effect of
gallic acid (GA) on isolated rat hearts with
alloxan-induced
diabetes mellitus. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided randomly into three groups: control, untreated diabetic and diabetic animals treated with (GA, 25mg/kg). Diabetes was induced by 120mg/kg
alloxan injection. Eight weeks after GA administration, the hearts were isolated and exposed to
myocardial ischemia-reperfusion. The
body weight,
blood glucose,
hypertrophy index, left ventricular function,
infarct size, cardiac markers and oxidative stress were measured. In the diabetic group,
body weight, cardiac contractility (±dp/dt),
glutathione peroxidase (GPx) level (p<0.001), left ventricular developed pressure (LVDP), rate pressure product (RPP),
superoxide dismutase (SOD) and
catalase (CAT) levels (p<0.01) as well as the heart weight (p<0.05) significantly reduced. However,
blood glucose,
infarct size,
hypertrophy index,
lactate dehydrogenase (LDH),
creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB, p<0.001) and
troponin-I (cTnI) levels (p<0.05) significantly increased in the diabetic rats compared with the control group. Nevertheless, administration of GA improved significantly LVDP, ±dp/dt,
infarct size, LDH, CK-MB (p<0.001),
blood glucose, the heart weight (p<0.01),
body weight, RPP,
hypertrophy index,
antioxidant enzyme and cTnI levels (p<0.05) in the diabetic rats. The results of this study indicated that in the diabetic rats,
left ventricular dysfunction and
hypertrophy significantly induced possibly by oxidative stress. Moreover, GA as a potent
antioxidant improved both
left ventricular dysfunction and
hypertrophy.