The present experiment was designed to study the protective role of ALA on some biological cardiac markers include creatinine phosphokinase, C- reactive protein and troponin and histology of heart and aorta in intact and ovariectomized rabbits. Twenty rabbits, aged seven to eight weeks, were employed in this investigation. The animals were split up evenly into the following four groups: The intact rabbits in Group One (G1) were given distilled water. The intact rabbits in Group Two (G2) were given an oral dose of alpha lipoic acid (10 mg/kg B.wt). The ovariectomized rabbits in Group Three (G3) were given distilled water. Group four (G4) Ovariectomized rabbits received alpha lipoic acid (10mg/kg B.wt) orally. The results reveal that supplemented groups show a significant decrease in CPK, CRP and troponin serum level. Moreover, there is an increase in heart index (0.45% and 0.41%) as compared with none supplemented intact and ovariectomized groups (0.43% and 0.35%) respectively. The histological sections of the heart from the supplemented groups show no clear lesions with normal spindle shape cardiac muscle and intercalated disc with normal aorta and epithelial cells. From the other hand, the ovariectomized non- supplemented rabbits show clear lesions in their heart and aorta. There was clear necrosis of cardiac muscle fibers with fatty change in endocardium or papillary muscles due to estrogen deficiency, irregular myocardial endothelial degeneration and congested blood vessels. The aorta of these groups has enlargement and thickening of endothelial cells with infiltration of fatty cells in tunica intimae (The structure of intima changes in postmenopausal and it becomes multilayered due to migration of smooth muscle cells from the media to intima). In conclusions, the result of the current study could prove that Alpha lipoic acid has a protection on cardiovascular system in menopause estrogen deficiency and ovariectomized female rabbits. Alpha lipoic acid could fight the deleterious effect of menopause estrogen deficiency.
Keywords | Ovariectomy, Menopause, Estrogen deficiency Alpha lipoic acid, Cardiovascular system, Rabbits, Histology, Biological markers