title: Enhancement of amlodipine cardioprotection by quercetin in ischaemia/reperfusion injury in rats.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the possible modification of the cardioprotective effect of amlodipine when co-administered with quercetin in myocardial ischaemia/reperfusion-induced functional, metabolic and cellular alterations in rats.
  
  
  METHODS
  Oral doses of amlodipine (15 mg/kg) and quercetin (5 mg/kg), alone or in combination, were administered once daily for 1 week. Rats were then subjected to myocardial ischaemia/reperfusion (35(min)/10(min)). Heart rates and ventricular arrhythmias were recorded during ischaemia/reperfusion progress. At the end of reperfusion, activities of plasma creatine kinase (CK) and cardiac myeloperoxidase were determined. In addition, cardiac contents of lactate, ATP, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), reduced glutathione (GSH) and total nitrate/nitrite (NO(x)) were estimated. Finally, histological examination was performed to visualize the protective cellular effects of different pretreatments.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Combined therapy provided significant improvement in the amlodipine effect toward preserving cardiac electrophysiologic functions, ATP and GSH contents as well as reducing the elevated plasma CK, cardiac TBARS and NO(x) contents.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Quercetin could add benefits to the cardioprotective effect of amlodipine against injury induced in the heart by ischaemia/reperfusion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Cairo University, Kasr El Aini st, Cairo 11562, Egypt. lamiaahmed2004@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Lamiaa A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Ahmed
authors.forename: Hesham A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Salem
authors.forename: Amina S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Attia
authors.forename: Mostafa E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: El-Sayed
mesh_terms: D017311:Amlodipine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000818:Animals; D000975:Antioxidants / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000188:drug therapy; D002316:Cardiotonic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000187:drug effects; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D015428:Myocardial Reperfusion Injury / Q000188:drug therapy*; D011794:Quercetin / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011897:Random Allocation; D051381:Rats; D014665:Vasodilator Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D000975:Antioxidants; D002316:Cardiotonic Agents; D014665:Vasodilator Agents; D017311:Amlodipine; D011794:Quercetin