examining the cardioprotective effects of aerobic exercise combined with crocin or berberine on methamphetamine-induced heart damage in female rats

Background: while the harmful effects of methamphetamine abuse on the heart are well-known, the solutions to deal with these damages are not well-known. objectives: this study aimed to investigate whether aerobic exercise combined with supplements such as crocin and berberine can potentially protect against methamphetamine-induced changes in the heart tissue of female rats. materials and methods: forty-two female rats were randomly assigned into seven groups (n = 6). the groups included healthy control, methamphetamine, methamphetamine + exercise, methamphetamine + crocin, methamphetamine + berberine, methamphetamine + exercise + crocin, and methamphetamine + exercise + berberine group. methamphetamine (10 mg/kg) was injected intraperitoneally over five days. the animals were administered crocin via intraperitoneal injection at 40 mg/kg during a four-week withdrawal period. at the same time, berberine was dissolved in drinking water at 100 mg/kg concentration. the aerobic training consisted of running at 25 m/min for 30 minutes. a light microscope was used to observe the structural changes. data analysis was performed using non-parametric kruskal-wallis and mann-whitney u tests by spss 26, with a significance level of 5%. results: the results of the study indicate that methamphetamine use causes hyperemia, inflammation, and histopathological damage in the heart cells and tissue (p = 0.001). the combination of exercise with crocin significantly eliminated methamphetamine-induced heart tissue damage (p = 0.001) and improved cardio-respiratory endurance compared to control (p = 0.004) and methamphetamine (p = 0.01) groups. the combination of aerobic exercise with berberine removed methamphetamine-induced heart cell damage (p = 0.001), and improved cardio-respiratory endurance compared to control (p = 0.024) and methamphetamine (p = 0.05) groups. in addition, all intervention groups showed a significant reduction in hyperemia and inflammation compared to the methamphetamine group (p = 0.001). conclusions: a combination of exercise with either crocin or berberine supplements demonstrated potential benefits in mitigating some of the harmful structural effects of methamphetamine and improving cardio-respiratory endurance.