Cerebrolysin Effects on Cardiac Neuropathy in Diabetic Rats

Abstract

Autonomic innervation of heart is abnormal in diabetes and produces altered cardiovascular parameters. Cerebrolysin is a neurotrophic factor that improves the dendritic tree and synapses in the central nerve system after brain damage. The aim of this study was to evaluate if cerebrolysin can improve the cardiac neuropathy generated in diabetic rats. Male Sprague-Dawley rats two months old were injected with streptozotocin (70 mg/Kg/, ip). Hyperglycemia and altered cardiac rate were confirmed after eight weeks of STZ injection, and cerebrolysin treatment was started in control and diabetic rats for two months (1 ml/kg/day, ip). Body weight, heart rate, heart rate variability, arterial blood pressure, and blood glucose levels were measured. Also heart weight and levels of nitrites, NGF and VEGF were measured in left ventricle homogenates. The results show that body weight was reduced and blood glucose levels were increased significantly in diabetic rats. Cerebrolysin treatment produced no significant changes in body weight either in blood glucose level in control and diabetic rats. Cerebrolysin treatment in diabetic rats shows an improvement in the altered basal cardiac rate (306 ± 6.5 lat/min) compared to diabetic saline group (272 ± 8.9 lat/min: P < 0.05), without changes in control rats. Levels of nitrites, VEGF, and NGF in the left ventricle increased in diabetic cerebrolysin treated rats. In conclusion, the results show that cerebrolysin improves some abnormalities observed in the diabetic cardiac neuropathy in rats and suggest that could be considered an additional treatment to prevent or reduce the cardiac autonomic alterations generated in diabetes.

Dr Cerebrolysin Improves Motor Abilities and Reverses the Long-Term Memory Acquisition Deficit in Rats with Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy

“…Moreover, Cerebrolysin administration to healthy pup rats did not affect the cell viability or modify gross brain structure. These data support the Cerebrolysin safe use in immature brains as found in different disease models such as stroke in adult animals, even in older adult rats, and cardiac neuropathy 6,10,[31][32][33] .…”

Efficacy of cerebrolysin on dentate gyrus of hippocampus after experimentally induced acute ischemic stroke in adult albino rats (Histological, immunohistochemical and biochemical study)

“…Cerebrolysin is a mixture of an amino acid and peptide [21] that successfully has been used to support synaptic growth in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease [22] , traumatic brain injury and neurodevelopmental disorders, including schizophrenia [23] . Recent studies report that it reduces the central and peripheral neuropathy secondary to chronic hyperglycemia induced by streptozotocin in mice and rats [24] .…”