CoQ10 Improves Myocardial Damage in Doxorubicin-Induced Heart Failure in C57BL/6 Mice

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Doxorubicin (DOX) is an effective adjunct to cancer chemotherapy but leads to cardiovascular-related side effects. Because coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) has been shown to protect against cardiac damage, this study was conducted to investigate the protective effects of CoQ10 against cardiac damage in mice. METHODS: We randomly divided six-week-old male C57BL/6 mice into four groups: control (n = 7), CoQ10 (n = 7), heart failure (HF) (n = 7), and HF+CoQ10 (n = 6) groups. HF group was induced via intraperitoneal injections with DOX (5 mg/kg) once weekly for 4 weeks. CoQ10 was solube in corn oil. The mice of CoQ10 and HF+CoQ10 group were given CoQ10 (100 mg/kg) once a day for 8 weeks. All mice were subjected to different treatment regimens for eight weeks. Metabolic characteristics, cardiac damage, oxidative stress markers (SIRT1, SIRT3, eNOS, TE, P53, SIRT5, CAT, HO-1, and SOD), energy metabolism markers (PARP-1 and PPAR-γ), myocardial fibrosis markers (Smad3 and TGF-β), and apoptosis markers (BAK, BCL-XL, and caspase-8) were analyzed at eight weeks after the different treatments. RESULTS: CoQ10 reduced the levels of molecules related to cardiac damage, oxidative stress, energy metabolism, and myocardial fibrosis in mice with doxorubicin-induced HF. CoQ10 also exerted anti-apoptotic effects in HF mice. CONCLUSIONS: CoQ10 may be useful for preventing cardiac damage in DOX-induced HF.