protective effect of garlic against the electrocardiographic changes induced by hyperlipidemia in rats

ABSTRACT

Hyperlipidemia was induced experimentally in adult male rats by feeding synthetic diet along eight weeks. Parallely, a set of animals receiving hyperlipidemic diet was subjected to oral administration of fresh garlic homogenate [0.5 g/Kg daily]. Animals were then evaluated for the serum levels of total cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL-c and LDL-c. In addition, their electrocardiography was conducted and assessed for the different changes. The obtained results showed that hyperlipidemic diet results in increasing serum total cholesterol and LDL-c and, decreasing that of HDL-c. The elecrocardiograhic consequences of hyerlipidemia include the ST segment elevation and lowering of the QTc ratio. Co-administration of fresh garlic homogenate along the first 4 weeks resulted in decreasing serum cholesterol level and improving the levels of LDL-c and HDL-c. These biochemical changes were vanished on the continued administration for the next 4 weeks. On the other hand, co-administration of fresh garlic homogenate resulted in improving the electrocardiograhic performance, as indicated by normalizing the ST segment amplitude and the QTc ratio. In conclusion, fresh garlic homogenate was shown to improve cardiographic performance in experimentally induced hyperlipidemic rats