Mitotherapy with Fresh Isolated Cardiac Mitochondria Via Injection Into Blood Reduces Aluminum Phosphide-Induced Mortality and Protects Cardiac Tissue Against Oxidative Stress and Mitochondrial Damages.

The hallmark of aluminum phosphide (AlP) poisoning is heart failure in victims which is associated with reactive oxygen species (ROS), mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, alteration in antioxidant defense system and depletion of ATP in cardiomyocytes. In the present study, we hypothesized that the injection of isolated mitochondria into blood or mitochondrial transplantation can likely create a primary target for phosphine released from AlP and inhibit AlP-induced mortality and cardiotoxicity in rat. Male, Wistar, healthy and adult rats were randomly divided into 5 groups as control, AlP (12.5 mg/kg, orally), AlP + mitochondria (125 µg/kg), AlP + mitochondria (250 µg/kg) and mitochondria (250 µg/kg) alone. Functional and intact mitochondria isolated from rat heart and transplantation was carried out via tail vein, 30 min after exposure to AlP. Survival rate, histopathological alterations, cardiac biochemical markers, oxidative stress and mitochondrial toxicity parameters were monitored and analyzed during 30 days. We found that injection of healthy mitochondria into blood at concentrations of 125 and 250 125 µg/ml significantly increased the survival of rats up to 40% and 56.25% respectively, during 30 days. Moreover, we observed that mitochondria injection into blood decreased histopathological damages, cardiac biochemical markers, oxidative stress and mitochondrial toxicity parameters. To our knowledge, the current study is the first report in the literature that demonstrated good therapeutic effects of mitochondrial transplantation in AlP-induced mortality and cardiotoxicity. The findings of the present study suggests that injection of exogenous mitochondria into blood could be an effective therapeutic strategy in treating AlP poisoning.