Effect of ursolic acid on cardiac marker enzymes, lipid profile and macroscopic enzyme mapping assay in isoproterenol-induced myocardial ischemic rats

This study investigates the antihyperlipidemic effect of ursolic acid (UA) on isoproterenol (ISO) induced male albino Wistar rats. Myocardial ischemia was induced by subcutaneous injection of ISO (85 mg/kg BW) twice at an interval of 24 h, for two consecutive days. A significant increase in the activities of the serum marker enzymes [creatine kinase, creatine kinase-MB and lactate dehydrogenease (LDH)], a prominent expression of LDH 1 and LDH 2 isoenzymes, increased levels of plasma total cholesterol (TC), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol, very low density lipoprotein-cholesterol, triglycerides (TG), free fatty acids (FFA), phospholipids (PL) and atherogenic index and decreased level of high density lipoprotein-cholesterol were observed in ISO-induced rats. The levels of TC, TG and FFA increased and the level of PL decreased in the heart tissue of ISO-induced rats. Further, there was an increased DNA damage (Comet assay) and myocardium infarct size as observed by staining with triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC). UA was administered subcutaneously for 7 days at a dose of 40 mg/kg BW. UA administration to ischemic rats brought all these parameters to near normality showing the protective effect of UA on ISO-induced rats.