Evaluation of cardiotoxicity of doxorubicin in rat by a novel metabolic balance model

The study developed a metabolic balance model to evaluated the cardiotoxicity of doxorubicin. The rats were divided into 3 groups, control group(saline), low dose group(8 mg/kg of cumulative doxorubicin)and high dose group(15 mg/kg of cumulative doxorubicin). Doxorubicin or saline was intraperitoneally injected and blood sample was collected at day 1, 4, 7 and 10. The concentrations of nitric oxide(NO), B-type natriuretic peptide(BNP)and the activity of glutathion peroxidase(GSH-Px), xanthine oxidase(XOD)in rat plasma were determined. A metabolic balance model based on the four biomarkers was developed to evaluate the doxorubicin cardiotoxicity in rat. Doxorubicin leaded to significant changes of multiple biomarkers, resulting in metabolic balance disruption according to the metabolic balance maps and dynamic parameters of metabolic balance disruption. Moreover, the correlation study showed a good relationship between metabolic balance disruption and ejection fraction(EF). The metabolic balance model provide a novel method to integrally evaluate the doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity.