Abstract:
Androgenic anabolic steroids (AAS) are often used by
athletes to enhance athletic performance but are strongly
associated with detrimental cardiovascular effects
including sudden cardiac death.
Hypothesis: AAS use increases myocardial susceptibility
to ischaemia/reperfusion injury.
Methods: Rats were trained (swimming) with or without
intramuscular injection of nandrolone laurate (0.375
mg/kg). Untrained rats with or without nandrolone served
as controls. Hearts were mounted on the Langendorff
perfusion apparatus and mechanical function was measured
before and after 20-min normothermic global
ischaemia. Myocardial tissue samples were collected
for determination of tissue cyclic nucleotide and TNFα
concentrations.
Results: Anabolic steroids decreased the rate pressure
product (RPP) of the exercise-trained rat heart [34 582
± 1 778 mmHg/min vs 28 868 ± 2 446 mmHg/min
for exercise-trained steroid-treated hearts (p < 0.05)].
Reperfusion RPP was lower in both the sedentary,
and the exercise-trained, steroid-treated hearts than in
their concurrent vehicle-treated controls (18 276 ± 2 026
mmHg/min vs 12 018 ± 1 725 mmHg/min for sedentary
steroid-treated hearts and, 21 892 ± 2 912 mmHg vs
12 838 ± 1 536 mmHg/min for exercise-trained steroidtreated
hearts). Myocardial TNFα [267.75 ± 44.25 pg/g
vs 190.00 ± 15.75 pg/g (p < 0.05)] and cAMP concentrations
[406.04 ± 18.41 pmol/g vs 235.6 ± 43.26 pmol/g
