Effect of -Sitosterol on Cardiac Troponins, Marker Enzymes and Biochemical Parameters in Isoproterenol-Induced Myocardial Infarction

Increasing trend of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is not completely controlled by allopathic medicine. However, usages of plant based medicine have a great impact on CVD. This study evaluated the preventive role of -sitosterol on heart weight, cardiac markers and other biochemical parameters in isoproterenol (ISO)-induced myocardial infarction (MI) in Wistar rats. -sitosterol pretreatment period of 21 d after ISO (85 mg/kg) induced experimental rats for 2 d were carried out. Rats injected with ISO (85 mg/kg) showed significantly increased levels of heart weight, elevated activities of cardiac marker enzymes such as creatine kinase (CK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), aspartate transaminase (AST) and alanine transaminase (ALT) in serum with consequent depletion in their activities in heart. The levels of cardiac troponin T (cTnT), troponin I (cTnI), glucose, uric acid, serum iron were significantly increased with succeeding decrease in the levels of total proteins and A/G ratio. Wistar rats were pretreated with β-sitosterol (10, 20 and 40 mg/kg) for a period of 21 d to ISO-induced rats showed a significant decrease in heart weight and minimized the alterations in the activity levels of cardiac marker enzymes and other biochemical parameters. This could be due to the minimization of cardiac damage to ISO-induced rats. Thus, the results of our study show that -sitosterol possess cardioprotective role in ISO-induced MI in rats.