Ozone-Oxidative Preconditioning Prevents Doxorubicin-induced Cardiotoxicity in Sprague-Dawley Rats

Objectives: induced dilated cardiomyopathy is the main limitation of the anti-cancer drug doxorubicin,which causes oxidative stress and cardiomyocyte death. as ozone therapy can activate the antioxidant systems, this study aimed to investigate the therapeutic efficacy of ozone-oxidative preconditioning against doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity. methods: the study was carried out from september 2013 to january 2014. sprague-dawley rats were randomly distributed in the following treatment groups: group 1 were treated with 2 mg/kg intraperitoneal (i.p.) of doxorubicin twice a week for 50 days; group 2 were treated with 0.3 mg of ozone/oxygen mixture at 50 μg/ ml of ozone per 6 ml of oxygen by rectal insufflation and then treated with doxorubicin; group 3 were treated as group 2 but only with the oxygen, and group 4 were treated with oxygen first, and then with sodium chloride i.p. as the control group. results: the results showed that ozone therapy preserved left ventricle morphology which was accompanied by a reduction of serum pro-brain natriuretic peptide levels. the cardioprotective effects of ozoneoxidative preconditioning were associated with a significant increase (p <0.05) of antioxidant enzymes activities and a reduction of lipid and protein oxidation (p <0.05). conclusion: ozone-oxidative preconditioning prevents doxorubicin-induced dilated cardiomyopathy through an increase of antioxidant enzymes and a reduction of oxidised macromolecules. this establishes the background for future studies to determine if ozone therapy can be used as a complementary treatment for attenuating doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity in cancer patients.