Cardiovascular disease is a key community health challenge and presently the condition with the utmost deaths around the globe, even though enormous development has been made in its management but there are still many difficulties. In the current study, we made an attempt to evaluate the therapeutic action of betaine, an active nutraceutical against isoproterenol-induced myocardial infarction (MI) in rats. The rats were pre-treated with betaine (250mg/Kg BW) for the period of 30 days and on the 31st and 32nd days, they were administered with isoproterenol (20mg/Kg BW) to produce MI in rats. Then we evaluated the effects of betaine on the ratio of heart weight to the body weight. Cardiac diagnostic markers and the production of proinflammatory cytokines and matrix metallopreoteinases along with their mRNA expressions were also studied in the heart by RT-PCR. We found that there was a significant elevation in the heart size, levels of LDH, CK-MB, CRP, homocysteine and serum pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-ɑ, IL-1ɑ, IL-1β, IL-6, MCP-1 and RANTES) and matrix metallopreoteinases (MMP-2 and MMP-9) in MI rats. On the other hand, pre-treatment of MI rats with betaine revealed a noteworthy reduction in the proinflammatory cytokines and matrix metallopreoteinases in the serum. RT-PCR study revealed that betaine successfully down-regulated the mRNA expressions of NF-κB, TNF-ɑ, IL-6, MMP-2 and MMP-9 in MI rats. In conclusion, this study revealed that betaine is able to ameliorate MI by restraining the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and matrix metallopreoteinases. Hence, betaine might be used as a dietary supplement as an alternative for cardio-protection.
Keywords: Betaine, Cardiovascular disease, Myocardial infarction, Natural products, Nutraceuticals.
