Vitamin C greatly decreases creatine kinase levels in animal model of
statin/fibrate-induced myopathy
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Drug-induced myopathy is one of the frequent
forms of muscle disease, and drugs used for hyperlipidemia, especially
the statins are a common culprit, and particularly when combined with a
fibrate. Clinicians usually measure plasma levels of three enzymes,
creatine kinase (CK), aldolase and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) for
diagnosis of myopathy and determination of its severity. Physical
exercise can aggravate statin-associated muscular disease. The question
is whether antioxidants like vitamin C (Vit.C) can prevent such
myopathy. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH In this experiment a combination of oral
atorvastatin (ATV, 80 mg/kg/day, orally) and gemfibrozil (GMF, 1000
mg/kg/day, orally) was used for ten days plus exercise in days 8, 9 and
10 to induce myopathy in rats. To add physical exercise, the forced
swimming test was applied in the last three days. Ascorbic acid (50
mg/kg/day, orally) was added to ATV/GMF plus exercise regimen throughout
the 10 days in the treatment group. The mean blood levels of CK,
aldolase and LDH were measured in addition to swimming tolerance times.
KEY RESULTS There was a significantly lower swimming tolerance time (P
< 0.05) and higher CK levels (P < 0.01) in rats
receiving ATV/GMF/Vit.C plus exercise compared with rats not taking
Vit.C. LDH and aldolase didn’t decrease significantly. CONCLUSIONS &
IMPLICATIONS A protective role of vit.C against drug-induced myopathy is
suggested by the findings of this study.