Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Astaxanthin protects against diabetic cardiomyopathy via activation of Akt pathway in H9c2 cells

Yanyan Hu¹ , Lin Shen¹, Li Li², Man Li¹, Wenbin Yin¹, Wei Liu¹, Jian Zhang¹

¹Geriatrics Department of Shandong University Qilu Hospital, No. 107 Wen Hua West Road; ²Shandong University Qilu Medical College, No. 44 Wen Hua West Road, Jinan City, Shandong Province, China.

For correspondence:- Yanyan Hu Email: yanyanhu018@sina.com Tel:+8615917410131

Accepted: 21 October 2018 Published: 30 November 2018

Citation: Hu Y, Shen L, Li L, Li M, Yin W, Liu W, et al. Astaxanthin protects against diabetic cardiomyopathy via activation of Akt pathway in H9c2 cells. Trop J Pharm Res 2018; 17(11):2151-2156 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v17i11.6

© 2018 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the cardioprotective action of astaxanthin, and to elucidate its underlying mechanism of action in H9c2 cells.

Methods: Cell viability was determined by MTT assay. Intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) were evaluated using 2, 7-dichlorodihydro-@258;uorescein diacetate (H2DCFDA) staining. Cell apoptosis were assessed by determining caspase activities using colorimetric assay. The apoptotic cells were labelled with annexin V/PI staining and quantified by flow cytometry. Involvement of Akt signaling pathway was verified using western blot.

Results: The results revealed that astaxanthin (5 and 10 μM) dose-dependently reversed high glucose-induced cell viability loss in H9c2 cells (p < 0.01 and p < 0.001, respectively). Astaxanthin inhibited intracellular ROS production, decreased caspase 3 and caspase 9 activities in high glucose-challenged H9c2 cells in a concentration-related manner (p < 0.05). Besides, astaxanthin markedly inhibited the number of apoptotic H9c2 cells induced by high glucose. Furthermore, western blot analysis demonstrated that astaxanthin upregulated the activation of Akt signaling.

Conclusion: Astaxanthin may protect high glucose induced diabetic cardiomyopathy via activation of Akt pathway, and thus deserves further investigation as a cardioprotective agent.

Keywords: Astaxanthin, Diabetic cardiomyopathy, Cardiomyocyte, Apoptosis, Akt pathway