Effects of Long-term administration of sildenafil citrate on serum markers of cardiac injury in the rats

Nowadays, sexual impotence due to increased heart disease, has led to rising in consumption of sexual enhancing drugs. In heart failure, due to decreased blood supply to corpus cavernosum, complete erection does not occur, which can lead to sexual dissatisfaction. One of the most important drugs which are used to treat this disorder is sildenafil citrate, a selective inhibitor of type 5 cGMP. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the long-term side effects of this drug on serum biomarkers of cardiac injury in the rat. In this study, 20 male Wistar rats were randomly assigned into 2 groups including: control and treatment. In treatment group, sildenafil citrate use at a dose of 100 mg/kg for 30 consecutive days in oral rout and control group only received Distilled water. At the end of experiment, the serum levels of cardiac troponin I, creatine kinase- MB, lactate dehydrogenase and aspartate aminotransferase were measured. The results obtained showed that sildenafil citrate has protective effects on cardiac enzymes which may be in association with releasing of nitric oxide (NO).