cardioprotective effect of high-intensity aerobic interval training against adriamycin-induced cardiac toxicity in rats

Background: adriamycin (adr) is a useful drug for the treatment of hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. however, its clinical uses are limited due to dose-dependent cardiac toxicity. contrary to moderate endurance training, there is little research about the protective role of high-intensity aerobic interval training (hiit) against the adr-induced cardiac toxicity and its mechanisms. objectives: the present study aimed to investigate the protective effect of hiit against adr-induced cardiac toxicity in the left ventricle of rats by assessment of the serum biomarkers of cardiac injury (ldh and ck-mb). methods: twenty-four male wistar rats were randomly assigned into four groups (n = 6/group): (1) control; (2) adr (20 mg/kg.bw); 3) hiit (7 sets of 4 minutes intervals at 80% 90% vo2 max interspersed with 3 minutes periods of 65% 75% vo2 max, for 8 weeks), and (4) hiit + adr. the elisa method was used for measuring the serum levels of biomarkers. statistical differences were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance followed by tukey’s post hoc test for multiple comparisons (α < 0.05). results: based on the results, adr-induction resulted in a significant increase in the ldh and ck-mb levels compared to the adr group (p < 0.05). also, the hiit per se insignificantly increased the levels of ldh and ck-mb compared to the control group. however, the hiit before adr-induction resulted in a significant decrease in the ldh and ck-mb levels compared to the adr group (p < 0.05). conclusions: therefore, the hiit can be a proper non-prescriptive strategy for preventing adr-induced cardiotoxicity via reducing the serum biomarkers of cardiac injury.