Histopathological Evaluation of Heart Toxicity of a Novel Selective PPAR-γ Agonists CKD-501 in db/db Mice

High risk of cardiovascular diseases caused by existing PPAR-γ agonists such as rosiglitazone and pioglitazone has been recently reported. CKD-501 is a novel selective PPAR-γ agonist as a potential target to reduce cardiovascular risk in non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). In this study, We investigated potential cardiotoxicity of CKD-501 and compared its toxicity with that of rosiglitazone or pioglitazone using db/db mice. After 12-week repeated administration of CKD-501 at doses of 3, 10 and 30 mg/kg/day or rosiglitazone at doses of 10 and 30 mg/kg/day or pioglitazone at doses of 200 and 540 mg/kg/day, animals were sacrificed for investigation of potential toxicities. Diameters of left ventricles and areas of cardiomyocytes were measured. And lipid accumulation and apoptosis in heart muscle were examined by oil red O staining and TUNEL staining, respectively. Diameters of left ventricles were significantly increased in high dose treatment group of pioglitazone compared to control (p<0.05), while other groups showed a tendency for an increase. All test articles induced significantly the increase of area of cardiomyocytes in heart compared to control (p<0.01), in regular order as pioglitazone > CKD-501 ≥ rosiglitazone. However, lipid accumulation and apoptotic changes in heart were not observed in all dosing groups. Taken together, the myocardial cell hypertrophy of CKD-501 are relatively lower than that of pioglitazone and similar to rosiglitazone. And it is suggested that the myocardial cell hypertrophy of CKD-501 are less adverse in clinical use for the management of the NIDDM.