Grape seed extract alleviates high-fat diet-induced obesity and heart dysfunction by preventing cardiac siderosis

Obesity is a tremendous public health problem, characterized by ectopic accumulation of fat into non-adipose tissues, leading to oxidative stress and chronic inflammation, in which the heart is the most severely affected organ. We used an experimental model of high-fat-diet (HFD)-induced obesity to analyze the link between oxidative stress and heart dysfunction. We also studied the cardioprotective effect of a grape seed and skin extract (GSE). Exposure of rats to HFD during 45 days induced heart hypertrophy, inflammation as assessed by plasma CRP elevation and contractile dysfunction as revealed after ischemia/reperfusion of Langendorff-perfused hearts. HFD also induced cardiac steatosis and lipotoxicity, which are linked to an oxidative stress status, worsened by increased siderosis and resulting in Ca(2+) overload. Importantly, GSE alleviated all the deleterious effects of HFD treatment. These studies suggest that GSE is a safe anti-obesity and cardioprotective agent that should also find potential applications in other inflammatory damaging conditions as stroke.