Assessing the therapeutic potential of red cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata) to modulate renal and cardiac oxidative stress biomarkers in hypercholesterolemic rabbits

Background: The epidemiological transition is directly associated with dietary shift towards empty calories. In contrary, cabbage fights against oxidative stress mediated health disorders owing to the presence of nutritive constituents and low caloric count. The study aimed to assess the efficacy of red cabbage and its aqueous extract against renal and cardiac oxidative stress in response to hypercaloric diet. Methods: Red cabbage and its aqueous extract were fed to normal rabbits (Study I) and hypercholesterolemic diet (1% cholesterol) induced oxidatively stressed rabbits (Study II) for 12-weeks. Serum specific biomarkers of renal and cardiac oxidative stress including creatinine, urea, creatine kinase (CK), creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) were measured. Tissues of kidney and heart were employed to assess the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) alongside; lipid peroxidation was also studied. Results: Red cabbage extract depicted more decrement (p<0.05) in serum creatinine and urea levels up to 14.45 and 9.01% in oxidatively stressed rabbits (Study II), respectively. In kidney tissues, red cabbage extract showed an obvious reduction in lipid peroxidation up to 24.07% in Study II that ultimately restored SOD (11.38%) and CAT (16.72%) activities. On the other hand, red cabbage demonstrated promising aptitude (p<0.05) in mitigating cardiac compromised condition by down-regulating lipid peroxidation by 16.44%, which considerably decreased the serum levels of CK, CK-MB, LDH and AST. Conclusion: Relatively, red cabbage extract showed a relatively better response in controlling renal oxidative stress as compared to red cabbage; however, vice-versa was observed in case of cardiac oxidative stress.