Cadmium induced cardiac oxidative stress in rats and its attenuation by GSP through the activation of Nrf2 signaling pathway.

Cadmium (Cd) is one of the toxic heavy metals in the environment, which induces oxidative stress, dyslipidemia and membrane disturbances in heart. The present study was designed to evaluate the role of grape seed proanthocyanidins (GSP) against Cd induced oxidative stress mediated cardio-toxicity in rats. In this study, male Wistar rats were treated with Cd as cadmium chloride (CdCl2, 5 mg/ kg bw, PO) and pre-administered with GSP (100 mg/kg bw, PO) 90 min before the Cd intoxication for 4 weeks. Our results demonstrate a significant increase in the levels of cardiac troponins T and I (cTnT & I), cardiac serum markers, lipid peroxidative markers and plasma total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), phospholipids (PL) and free fatty acids (FFA). Cd induced oxidative stress decreased the levels of mitochondrial Krebs cycle enzymes as well as the respiratory chain enzyme activities and altered the levels of cardiac enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants. The inflammatory (NF-kB, NO, TNF-α, IL-6), apoptotic markers (caspase 3, cytochrome C, Bax, Bcl-2), membrane bound ATPases and antioxidant Nrf2 (HO-1, keap1) markers were also measured in the control and experimental rats. All these alterations caused by Cd could be lessened by the pre-supplementation of GSP. The pre-administration of GSP significantly increased the activities of mitochondrial and respiratory chain enzymes, reduced the levels of cardio-oxidative stress markers in Cd-treated rats, which examines the stress stabilizing action of GSP. GSP also prevented the cytochrome C release, inhibited the caspase activation and maintained the ratio of Bcl-2/Bax by its free radical scavenging ability. Nrf2 expression was transiently increased while the impaired cardiac markers were restored near to their basal levels by the pre-treatment with GSP in Cd intoxicated rats. The cardioprotective nature of the GSP was further fortified by our light microscopic and ultra structural findings. Overall, our results suggest that GSP has an ability to inhibit the membrane disturbances in cardiomyocytes, apoptotic pathway, inflammation and activate the Nrf2 expression through which it recuperated the Cd induced oxidative stress mediated cardiac dysfunction.