Cardioprotective Effects of Quercetin Against Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury Are Age-Dependent

Quercetin, a polyphenolic compound present in various types of food, has been shown to exert beneficial effects in different cardiac as well as non-cardiac ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) models in adult animals. However, there is no evidence about the effects of quercetin on I/R injury in non-mature animals, despite the fact that efficiency of some interventions against I/R is age-dependent. This study was aimed to investigate the effects of chronic quercetin treatment on I/R injury in juvenile and adult rat hearts. Juvenile (4-week-old) as well as adult (12-week-old) rats were treated with quercetin (20 mg/kg/day) for 4 weeks, hearts were excised and exposed to 25-min global ischemia followed by 40-min reperfusion. Functional parameters of hearts and occurrence of reperfusion arrhythmias were registered to assess the cardiac function. Our results have shown that quercetin improved post-ischemic recovery of LVDP, as well as recovery of markers of contraction and relaxation, +(dP/dt)max and -(dP/dt)max, respectively, in juvenile hearts, but not in adult hearts. Quercetin had no impact on incidence as well as duration of reperfusion arrhythmias in animals of both ages. We conclude that the age of rats plays an important role in heart response to quercetin treatment in the particular dose and duration of the treatment. Therefore, the age of the treated subjects should be taken into consideration when choosing the dose of quercetin and duration of its application in prevention and/or treatment of cardiovascular diseases.