The present study was undertaken to explore the protective effect of melatonin against isoproterenol bitartrate (ISO)-induced myocardial injury in rat. Treatment of rats with ISO increased the level of lipid peroxidation products and decreased the reduced glutathione levels in cardiac tissue indicating that this synthetic catecholamine induces oxidative damage following oxidative stress. Pretreatment of ISO-injected rats with melatonin at a dose of 10 mg/kg body weight, i.p. prevented these changes. Additionally, melatonin also restored the activities and the levels of antioxidant enzymes which were found to be altered by ISO treatment. Treatment of rats with ISO resulted into an increased generation of hydroxyl radicals with melatonin pretreatment significantly reducing their production. Finally, treatment of rats with ISO caused a lowering of systolic pressure with reduced cardiac output and diastolic dysfunction whereas melatonin pretreatment significantly restored many of these parameters to normal. The findings document melatonin's ability to provide cardio protection at a low pharmacological dose. Melatonin has virtually no toxicity which raises the possibility of this indole being a therapeutic treatment for ischemic heart disease.

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Mitochondrial dysfunction due to oxidative damage is the key feature of several diseases. We have earlier reported mitochondrial damage resulting from the generation of oxidative stress as a major pathophysiological effect of isoproterenol (ISO)-induced myocardial ischemia in rats. That melatonin is an antioxidant that ameliorates oxidative stress in experimental animals as well as in humans is well established. We previously demonstrated that melatonin provides cardioprotection against ISO-induced myocardial injury as a result of its antioxidant properties. The mechanism of ISO-induced cardiac mitochondrial damage and protection by melatonin, however, remains to be elucidated in vitro. In this study, we provide evidence that ISO causes dysfunction of isolated goat heart mitochondria. Incubation of cardiac mitochondria with increasing concentrations of ISO decreased mitochondrial succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) activity, which plays a pivotal role in mitochondrial bioenergetics, as well as altered the activities of other key enzymes of the Kreb's cycle and the respiratory chain. Co-incubation of ISO-challenged mitochondria with melatonin prevented the alterations in enzyme activity. That these changes in mitochondrial energy metabolism were due to the perpetration of oxidative stress by ISO was evident from the increased levels of lipid peroxidation and decreased reduced glutathione/oxidized glutathione ratio. ISO-induced oxidative stress also altered mitochondrial redox potential and brought about changes in the activity of the antioxidant enzymes manganese superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase, eventually leading to alterations in total ATPase activity and membrane potential. Melatonin ameliorated these changes likely through its antioxidant abilities suggesting a possible mechanism of cardioprotection by this indole against ISO-induced myocardial injury.

Cadmium (Cd) is a notorious environmental pollutant known for its wide range of toxicities to organisms. Thus, the present study is designed to examine whether melatonin, a potent antioxidant, protects against Cd-induced oxidative damage in the heart, liver and kidney of rats. Cd treatment at a dose of 0.44 mg/kg for 15 days caused severe damage in all these organs. These included significantly increased activities of SGPT, SGOT, lactate dehydrogenase- 1 and 5 and ALP and levels of total lactate, creatinine, lipid peroxidation, protein carbonyl content and reduced glutathione while the activities of superoxide dismutases, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase and glutathione-S-transferase along with mitochondrial pyruvate dehydrogenase, isocitrate dehydrogenase, α-keto glutarate dehydrogenase, succinate dehydrogenase, NADH-cytochrome-c-oxidoreductase and cytochrome-c-oxidase were significantly reduced by Cd. However, if melatonin was given orally 30 min before Cd injection, all these alterations induced by Cd were significantly preserved by melatonin. Histological observations also demonstrated that Cd exposure caused cellular lesions, promoting necrotic or apoptotic changes. Notably, all these changes were significantly protected by melatonin. The results suggest that melatonin is a beneficial molecule to ameliorate Cd-induced oxidative damage in the heart, liver and kidney tissues of rats with its powerful antioxidant capacity, heavy metal chelating activity and competition of binding sites with Cd to the GSH and catalase.