Efficacy of Lycopene to Improve Cardiac Ionic Balance Disturbance in Mice Exposed to Atrazine

Abstract

Lycopene (LYC) establishes cardiovascular disease (CVD) preventive effects. Atrazine (ATR), one of the most widely‐used herbicide in the whole world, has been demonstrated to cause circulatory disturbance in poisoned animals. We recently reported that LYC protects against ATR‐induced hepatic ionic homeostasis disturbance (J Nutr Biochem. Doi: 10.1016/j.jnutbio.2015.09.009). To better understand the relationship of LYC‐chemoprevention and ATR‐induced cardiotoxicity via cardiac ionic balance disturbance, the male kunming mice were treated with ATR (50 or 200 mg/kg body weight, daily) and/or LYC (5 mg/kg body weight, daily) by intragastric administration for 7, 14, and 21 days. The histopathological and biochemical analysis, ionic concentration (Na+, K+, Ca2+ and Mg2+ content), ATPases (Na+‐K+‐ATPase, Ca2+‐ATPase, Mg2+‐ATPase, Ca2+‐Mg2+‐ATPase) activities were assessed to determine their effects on isolated mice heart. The results revealed that ATR caused the decreases of creatine kinase (CK) activities and histological changes. LYC pretreatment significantly protected heart against ATR caused alternation. Serum Na+ content increased in ATR‐treated groups. K+ level significantly increased in serum but significantly decreased were observed in the heart. And Ca2+ and Mg2+ content significantly increased in the heart without significant change in serum. In the LYC+ ATR animals, the changes caused by ATR on ionic concentration were normalised to near the control values. ATR increased cardiac ATPases activities at 7 days and decreased these ATPases activities at 14, 21 days. It was not observed that significant effect of ATR and LYC on the cardiac ATPases activities. A significant change of Na+, K+ and Ca2+ content and decrease of Na+‐K+‐ATPase and Ca2+‐ATPase activity was observed in the ATR‐treated mice at 14, 21 days. Notably, LYC modulated these ATR‐induced alterations of ATPase activity. In summary, LYC at the investigated doses may protect against ATR‐induced ionic disorder and cardiac dysfunction in mice by regulates ATPases’ activities.Support or Funding InformationChina Special Project of International Technology Cooperation and Exchanges (2013DFG62260); China Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NECT‐1207‐02); China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2012T50301); Science Foundation of the Education Department of Heilongjiang Province (12511031), Academic Backbone Project of Northeast Agricultural University (15XG16) and University Science and Technology Innovation Team Construction Projects of Heilongjiang Province (2013TD003).