Alleviation of the acute doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity by Lycium barbarum polysaccharides through the suppression of oxidative stress

The present study aims to investigate whether Lycium barbarum polysaccharides (LBP) could protect against acute doxorubicin (DOX)-induced cardiotoxicity. Rats received daily treatment of either distilled water (4 ml/kg) or LBP (200 mg/kg) for 10 days and then followed by an intravenous injection at day 7 of either saline (10 ml/kg) or DOX (10 mg/kg). DOX induced significantly myocardial damage in rats, which were characterized as conduction abnormalities, decreased heart-to-body weight ratio, increased serum CK, and myofibrillar disarrangement. DOX treatment also increased MDA and decreased SOD and GSH-Px activity in cardiac tissues. Pretreatment with LBP significantly reduced DOX-induced oxidative injury in cardiac tissue, suggesting by the fact that LBP significantly attenuated DOX-induced cardiac myofibrillar disarrangement and LBP was effective in decreasing the levels of serum CK and thus improving conduction abnormalities caused by DOX. LBP treatment significantly increased SOD and GSH-Px activity and decreased the MDA level of heart tissues damaged by DOX exposure in rats. Furthermore, the cytotoxic study showed that LBP protect against cytotoxicity of DOX in cardiac myoblasts H9c2 but dose not attenuate the anti-tumor activity of DOX. In summary, our evidence indicates that LBP elicited a typical protective effect on DOX-induced acute cardiotoxicity via suppressing oxidative stress.