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The neuroprotective efficacies of citicoline and lamotrigine, alone and in combination, were investigated in experimental permanent focal ischemia. Seven groups of adult male rats underwent focal cerebral ischemia and were given the following treatments: placebo (P), low and high doses of citicoline (C250 and C500, 250 and 500 mg/kg/day i.p., respectively), low and high doses of lamotrigine (L50 and L100, 50 and 100 mg/kg/day p.o., respectively), and combination regimes of both drugs in low (C250 + L50) and high doses (C500 + L100). Citicoline, but not lamotrigine, exerted neuroprotective efficacy during this acute ischemic stroke model. The citicoline and lamotrigine combination did not provide a significant additive neuroprotective effect.

The effects of short-term antihypertensive treatment with nifedipine on blood pressure and vascular responsiveness were studied in cadmium-hypertensive and normotensive control rats. Cadmium administration caused a significant increase in mean arterial blood pressure. Endothelin-1, noradrenaline and angiotensin II produced concentration dependent contractions of aortic rings that attained a lower maximal contraction in cadmium-hypertensive rats. Responses of aortic rings to KCl did not show a significant difference between the groups. Nifedipine administered simultaneously with cadmium inhibited the induction of hypertension. Nifedipine treatment for 5 days significantly reduced the blood pressure in cadmium-hypertensive and normotensive rats. Neither inhibition of hypertension nor normalization of blood pressure in cadmium-hypertensive rats caused an alteration in contractile responses of aortic rings to vasoconstrictors which suggested that development of decreased vascular reactivity and of hypertension occurs simultaneously in cadmium-hypertensive rats but the role of decreased vascular reactivity in maintenance of hypertension is questionable in cadmium-hypertension.