Effects of Coenzyme Q10 against Simvastatin Induced Skeletal and diaphragmatic Myopathy in Adult Male Albino Rat: Histological, and Ultra structural Study

M. Amer, Maha; Mahmoud, Samah Mohamed; Ali Abd El-Meguid, Eman; S Seleem, Hanan; Khalifa Abd-Elhady, Hoda; R. Abdel-Hamed, Mohamed

doi:10.21608/mjmr.2025.371067.1923

Effects of Coenzyme Q10 against Simvastatin Induced Skeletal and diaphragmatic Myopathy in Adult Male Albino Rat: Histological, and Ultra structural Study

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Anatomy and Embryology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

² anatomy department,faculty of medicine,Minia university,Minia,Egypt

³ Department of Anatomy and Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, Fayoum University

⁴ Department of Histology and Cell Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Menoufia University, Shebin Elkoum-Menoufia, Egypt

⁵ Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Al Azhar University, Assuit, Egypt

10.21608/mjmr.2025.371067.1923

Abstract

Background: Statins are powerful drugs that have cholesterol concentration lowering impact. But statins can cause skeletal muscles complaints that vary from mild myalgia to deadly rhabdomyolysis. The thoracic diaphragm is a sheet of skeletal muscle with internal striation. The safety of statins on skeletal muscles including diaphragm as a respiratory muscle remains questionable

Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is a naturally occurring chemical substance that is naturally present in most living cells. It serves as mitochondrial respiratory chain's electron carrier.

The current study set out to assess the possible protective impact of exogenous Coq10 administration on the potential histological alterations in the rat diaphragmatic and gastrocnemius muscles induced by simvastatin.

Materials and Methods: forty mature male rats were split equally into four groups; control group, CoQ10 group treated with CoQ10, Simvastatin-treated rats, the simvastatin +CoQ10 rats received both simvastatin and CoQ10 daily a period of 4 weeks.

Rat animals were slaughtered, and the blood sample was obtained to assess creatine kinase (CK) concentration. Right gastrocnemius and diaphragmatic muscles samples were excised to be prepared for light and electron microscopic examination.

Results: Simvastatin therapy was associated with rise in CK concentration and histopathological alterations, including muscle architecture disarray in the form of disappearance of transverse striations and separation of myofibril.

Conclusion: Exogenous CoQ10 administration mitigated degenerative alterations in both skeletal and diaphragmatic muscles triggered by statins.

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