Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibition and angiogenesis in myocardium of obese Zucker rats

TOBLLI JE; CAO G; DE ROSA G; DI GENNARO F; FORCADA P

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HYPERTENSION

NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2004 vol. 17 p. 172 - 180

0895-7061

BACKGROUND: Obesity, hypertension, and non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) are associated with microvascular rarefaction in the myocardium and this contributes to increase cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. At present, controversial data exist in medical literature regarding the specific role of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors concerning angiogenesis in different tissues. The present study was designed to determine the possible beneficial effects of an ACE inhibitor perindopril on myocardial angiogenesis in an animal model of obesity, hypertension, and NIDDM, such as the obese Zucker rat (OZR) and control lean Zucker rats (LZR). METHODS AND RESULTS: Ten-week-old male OZR (fa/fa) and LZR (Fa/fa) were used in this study: OZR group (G1, n = 10), OZR with perindopril group (G2, n = 10); LZR group (G3, n = 10). For 6 months, G2 received a daily dose of 3 mg/kg of perindopril, by gavage, and G1 and G3 received an equal volume of vehicle throughout the experiment. After 6 months of treatment, all rats were killed, hearts were harvested for pathology studies, including immunohistochemistry, using monoclonal antibodies against rat endothelial cell (RECA-1) and endothelial nitric oxide synthase. At the end of the study, OZR treated with perindopril presented: 1) lower blood pressure (BP) (127 +/- 3.2 v 152.4 +/- 3 mm Hg, P