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Antiarrhythmic Effects of Some Antioxidant Vitamins in Rats Injected with Epinephrine

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An Erratum to this article was published on 19 November 2009

Abstract

Since excessive amounts of catecholamines are known to produce arrhythmias and increase the plasma level of aminochrome, an oxidation product of catecholamines, we tested the hypothesis that antioxidants may reduce the formation of aminochrome and prevent the catecholamine-induced arrhythmias. For this purpose, Sprague-Dawley rats were pretreated orally, with vitamin A or vitamin C for 21 days, and their effects on ventricular arrhythmias induced by a bolus dose or cumulative doses of intravenous epinephrine were examined. Electrocardiogram recording of these animals revealed that pretreatment with either of these vitamins increased the time of onset and decreased the duration of the epinephrine-induced ventricular arrhythmias. Ventricular fibrillations due to high doses of epinephrine were also prevented by the antioxidant pretreatment. Although pretreatment with either vitamin A or vitamin C did not affect the basal malondialdehyde level in control animals, the increase in malondialdehyde level caused by epinephrine administration was significantly reduced by these agents. The elevated level of plasma aminochrome due to epinephrine was also decreased by vitamins A and C treatments. The results indicate that antioxidant may prevent catecholamine-induced arrhythmias by reducing the formation of aminochrome and thus may provide a new strategy for the management of stress-related heart disease.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Manitoba and Chemo Cree Pharma Inc. Winnipeg. The infrastructure for this project was provided by the St. Boniface General Hospital Research Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, St. Boniface General Hospital, Research Center and Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Manitoba, 351 Tache Avenue, Winnipeg, MB, R2H 2A6, Canada

    Navneet S. Rehsia, Kunal Jindal, Ken S. Dhalla, Vijay Elimban & Naranjan S. Dhalla

  2. Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Texas A&M Health Science Center, Kingsville, TX, USA

    Rajat Sethi

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  1. Rajat Sethi
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Correspondence to Naranjan S. Dhalla.

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An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12012-009-9057-z

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Sethi, R., Rehsia, N.S., Jindal, K. et al. Antiarrhythmic Effects of Some Antioxidant Vitamins in Rats Injected with Epinephrine. Cardiovasc Toxicol 9, 177–184 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12012-009-9051-5

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