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Cardioprotective Effect of Mumie (Shilajit) on Experimentally Induced Myocardial Injury

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Abstract

This study assessed the effects of mumie (shilajit) pre-treatment, a traditional drug which is well known in the ancient medicine of both east and west, on cardiac performance of rats subjected to myocardial injury. Animals were divided into control, M250, and M500 (received mumie at dosages of 250 and 500 mg/kg/day, orally for 7 days, respectively) main groups each consisting of two subgroups—with and without heart injury. On the 6th and 7th days, isoproterenol (ISO) (85 mg/kg i.p.) was injected (s.c.) to half of the animal subgroups to induce myocardial damage. On the 8th day, after hemodynamic parameter recordings, hearts were removed for further evaluation. Mumie pre-treatment had no significant effects on hemodynamic and cardiac indices of normal animals. When the cardiac injury was induced, mumie maintained the ±dp/dt maximum, attenuated the serum cardiac troponin I, and reduced the severity of cardiac lesions. Despite the mild positive effects of mumie on total antioxidant capacity and lipid proxidation index, no significant difference was observed among animal groups. The findings suggest the prominent cardioprotective effect of mumie against destructive effects of ISO. It seems that other mechanisms than reinforcements of antioxidant system are involved in this beneficial effect.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to the Vice Chancellor of Research, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, for financial support. We also express our gratitude to Ms Nadia Ghazanfari-Moghaddam for her critical proofreading of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Siyavash Joukar.

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Joukar, S., Najafipour, H., Dabiri, S. et al. Cardioprotective Effect of Mumie (Shilajit) on Experimentally Induced Myocardial Injury. Cardiovasc Toxicol 14, 214–221 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12012-014-9245-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12012-014-9245-3

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