Prevention of hypertension and vascular changes by captopril treatment.

Abstract

Treatment of female spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and control Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats with captopril was carried out by the addition of the drug in the drinking water throughout pregnancy and lactation and after weaning. At 28 weeks of age, average systolic blood pressure of treated SHR was 113±3 mm Hg, which was below that of control SHR (188±3 mm Hg) and WKY rats (124±3 mm Hg). Body weight and heart rate of the SHR were not affected by the treatment Tissue level of catecholamines was increased by captopril treatment in the superior cervical ganglia but remained unchanged in the plasma, heart, mesenteric arteries, and the adrenal glands of both SHR and WKY rats. Left ventricular weight, wall thickness, and internal diameter of the left ventricle in the SHR were reduced by the treatment Morphometric measurements of the mesenteric arteries showed that vascular alterations present in the control SHR were prevented by the treatment In the superior mesenteric artery and large mesenteric artery, smaller lumen size at maximal relaxation found in the control SHR was normalized to the level of the WKY rats. Hypertrophy of the medial wall in the superior mesenteric, large and small mesenteric arteries, and an increase in the number of smooth muscle cell layers in the large mesenteric artery of the SHR were prevented by the treatment. Perfusion study of the mesenteric vascular bed showed that reactivity of these vessels to norepinephrine was reduced, and sensitivity to norepinephrine (as determined by the effective dose that causes 50% of maximal response) was increased in the SHR by captopril treatment Sensitivity of the tail artery in response to norepinephrine was not altered by the treatment We conclude that long-term treatment with captopril of SHR before and after birth prevented the development of hypertension, structural and functional alterations of the mesenteric arteries, and cardiac hypertrophy. (Hypertension 1991;17:141-150) C hronic intracerebroventricular administration of captopril, when started in young spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), has been shown to attenuate the development of hypertension in these animals. -2 Such an effect was associated with a marked depression in vascular reactivity to exogenous vasoconstrictors and a potentiation of baroreceptor

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New insights into elastic fiber assembly

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Antihypertensive Treatment Improves Endothelium-Dependent Hyperpolarization in the Mesenteric Artery of Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats

“…Furthermore, enalapril treatment has been shown to correct such an abnormality in Ca 2ϩ handling in arteries of SHRs. 52 Treatment with ACE inhibitors may reduce the contractile response to agonists, 53 thereby mechanically augmenting the relaxation. However, the maximal active tension generated by 10 Ϫ5 mol/L NE did not differ among the four study groups (unpublished data).…”