Cardioprotective Efficacy of a Novel Antioxidant Mix VitaePro Against Ex Vivo Myocardial Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury

Circumstantial evidence frequently implicates oxygen-derived free radicals and oxidative stress as mediators of myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. Therefore, external supplementation of natural antioxidants plays a main role as cardioprotective compounds. This study was designed to evaluate the cardioprotective effect of VitaePro (70 mg/kg body weight, 21 days), a novel antioxidant mix of astaxanthin, lutein and zeaxanthin in a rat ex vivo model of ischemia/reperfusion injury. The cardioprotective effect of VitaePro was also compared with vitamin E (70 mg/kg body weight, 21 days) treatment. Rats were randomized into control I/R (CIR), VitaePro I/R (VPIR) and Vitamin E I/R (VEIR). After 21 days of oral treatment, isolated hearts from each group were subjected to 30 min of ischemia followed by 2 h of reperfusion. In the VPIR group compared to CIR and VEIR groups at 2 h of reperfusion, increased left ventricular functional recovery, such as left ventricular developed pressure (92.7 +/- A 0.7 vs. 85.3 +/- A 0.3 and 89.4 +/- A 1.2 mm Hg), dp/dt (max) (2518.7 +/- A 77.9 vs. 1962.5 +/- A 24 and 2255.7 +/- A 126.6 mm Hg/s), and aortic flow (21.5 +/- A 1.36 vs. 4.4 +/- A 0.6 and 13.2 +/- A 1.02 ml/min) were observed. The infarct size (27.68 +/- A 1.7 vs. 45.4 +/- A 1.8 and 35.4 +/- A 0.6%), apoptotic cardiomyocytes (61.7 +/- A 10.6 vs. 194.1 +/- A 14.8 and 118.7 +/- A 15.4 counts/100 HPF) and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances levels (80 +/- A 3 vs. 127 +/- A 5 and 103 +/- 2 nM/mg tissue) also were decreased in VPIR group when compared to CIR and VEIR. As evidenced by the data, administration of vitamin E offered substantial cardioprotection to I/R injury, but VitaePro enhanced cardioprotection significantly more than vitamin E treatment. Taken in concert, the results of this study suggests that the oral ingestion of VitaePro protects myocardium from ischemia/reperfusion injury by decreasing oxidative stress and apoptosis, which may be of therapeutic benefit in the treatment of cardiovascular complications. However, further in vivo animal and human intervention studies are warranted before establishing any recommendations about usage of VitaePro for human cardiovascular complications.