Dietary Supplementation with Calcium in Healthy Rats Administered with Artemisinin –based Combination Therapy and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease

Reports on the role of calcium on predisposition to cardiovascular disease have been rather inconsistent while studies on its interaction with other medications are ongoing. We therefore investigated the effect of separate and combine administration of calcium supplement with artemisinin-based combination drug on hepatic and serum lipid profile. Thirty two male wistar rats were randomly assigned into four groups of eight rats each. The control (group A) received normal saline. Group B and D were placed on 10mg/Kg calcium twice daily for four weeks. On the thirtieth day, therapeutic dose of artemisinin-based combination was simultaneously administered to group C and group D twice daily for three days. All the rats were then sacrificed after 12 hours fasting, blood was withdrawn and the liver removed and homogenized in an appropriate buffer. Biochemical analysis showed no significant (p> 0.05) variation in hepatic triaacylglycerol in all the treated groups whereas calcium supplementation was observed to induce a significant (p< 0.05) reduction in hepatic cholesterol. Significant elevations due to calcium supplementation were also observed in serum total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol level and atherogenic risk index with a concomitant reduction in serum HDL cholesterol. No significant change was observed in serum total cholesterol, triacylglycerol and serum lipoproteins in all other treatment groups. Our study suggests that calcium supplementation may predispose to cardiovascular disease and that its co administration with ACT may not aggravate nor reduced the predisposition risk.