Abstract: AIM: To investigate the protection effect and mechanism of tiopronin on the cardiotoxicity induced by adriamycin in rats. METHODS: Rats were given intraperitoneal injection of adriamycin to induce the cardiotoxicity model.After continuous oral administration of tiopronin in adriamycin + tiopronin group for fourteen days, all the rats were killed.The content of cardiac troponin I (cTn Ⅰ), MB isoenzyme of creatine kinase (CK-MB) and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) in serum were monitored.The activities of superoxide dismutase(SOD), the contents of malondialdehyde (MDA) and nitric oxide(NO), the activities of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) in myocardial tissue were determined.Myocardial pathology changes of rat myocardium were detected. RESULTS: Comapared with adriamycin group, the content of cTn Ⅰ, CK-MB and BNP in serum were significantly decreased(P < 0.05 or P <0.01), the activity of SOD in myocardial tissue was significantly increased, the contents of MDA and NO in myocardial tissue were significantly decreased, the activities of NOS and iNOS in myocardial tissue were significantly decreased(P <0.01), the pathology integral was significantly decreased in adriamycin +tiopronin group(P <0.05). CONCLUSION: Tiopronin has a protective effect on adriamycin-induced cardiotoxicity in rats.Tiopronin could relieve the oxidative injury of myocardial tissue induced by adriamycin in rats by increasing the activity of SOD, inhibiting the activity of iNOS which decreases the contents of NO.

Key words: tiopronin, adriamycin, cardiotoxicity