Hindawi Publishing Corporation Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2013, Article ID 516727, 10 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/516727 Research Article Antioxidant Activity and Cardioprotective Effect of a Nonalcoholic Extract of Vaccinium meridionale Swartz during Ischemia-Reperfusion in Rats Yasmin E. Lopera, 1 Juliana Fantinelli, 2 Luisa F. González Arbeláez, 2 Benjamín Rojano, 1 José Luis Ríos, 3 Guillermo Schinella, 4 and Susana Mosca 2 1 Laboratorio de Ciencia de Alimentos, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Medell´ ın, Medell´ ın, Colombia 2 CONICET, Centro de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares, Facultad de Ciencias M´ edicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, La Plata, Argentina 3 Departament de Farmacologia, Facultat de Farm` acia, Universitat de Val` encia, Burjassot, 46100 Valencia, Spain 4 C´ atedra de Farmacolog´ ıa B´ asica, Facultad de Ciencias M´ edicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata and CIC Provincia de Buenos Aires, La Plata, Argentina Correspondence should be addressed to Susana Mosca; smosca@atlas.med.unlp.edu.ar Received 30 May 2012; Revised 13 December 2012; Accepted 21 December 2012 Academic Editor: Adair Roberto Soares Santos Copyright © 2013 Yasmin E. Lopera et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Our objective was to assess the antioxidant properties and the efects against the reperfusion injury of a nonalcoholic extract obtained by fermentation from the Colombian blueberry, morti˜ no (Vaccinium meridionale Swartz, Ericaceae). Antioxidant properties were assessed by in vitro systems. To examine the postischemic myocardial function, isolated rat hearts were treated 10 min before ischemia and during the irst 10 min of reperfusion with the extract. To analyze the participation of nitric oxide (NO), other experiments were performed in the presence of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibition with N G -nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME). In cardiac tissue thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) concentration, reduced glutathione (GSH) content, endothelial NOS (eNOS), and Akt expression were also measured. he blueberry extract showed higher total phenols and anthocyanins contents, scavenging activity of superoxide radical and systolic and diastolic function was improved, TBARS diminished, GSH was partially preserved, and both NOS and Akt expression increased in hearts treated with the extract. hese beneicial efects were lost when eNOS was inhibited. In resume, these data show that the increase of eNOS expression via Akt and the scavenging activity contribute to the cardioprotection aforded by acute treatment with Colombian blueberry extract against ischemia and reperfusion injury. 1. Introduction Oxidative stress is deined as the imbalance between the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and antioxi- dant defense mechanisms. Myocardial damage induced by ischemia-reperfusion of the heart has been proposed to be caused, at least in part, by ROS production [1–3]. Indirect evidence supporting this hypothesis has been the cardiopro- tective efects of ROS scavengers and agents capable of induc- ing antioxidants such as glutathione peroxidase (GSHpx) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) and of supplementing antioxidants [4]. he detrimental action of ROS has naturally led to increased interest in antioxidants, in particular, plant diet-derived antioxidants, as possible therapeutic agents [5, 6]. Unfortunately, the attempts to use synthetic antioxidants to block or attenuate the harmful efects of ROS have produced mixed and mostly negative results [7, 8]. here are various elements involved in this “antioxidant paradox,” such as the selection of dose, degree of collateral blood low, duration of ischemia, timing of drug administration, and drug delivery method [9]. Reduced nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability is other important factor mediating ischemia and reperfusion injury [10]. hus, the treatment with NO donors is able to prevent reperfusion-induced cell death