1. Reduced cardiac mass by nitrendipine is dissociated from systemic or regional haemodynamic changes in rats.
- Author
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KOBRIN, ISAAC, SESOKO, SHOJI, PEGRAM, BARBARA L, and FROHLICH, EDWARD D
- Abstract
The effects of prolonged treatment (3 weeks) with nitrendipine (10 mg·kg−1 twice daily) on systemic and regional haemodynamics and cardiac mass were studied in SHR and WKY rats. Nitrendipine markedly decreased mean arterial pressure (26.0±0.4 vs 19.9±0.6 kPa, P<0.01) and total peripheral resistance (0.090±0.004 vs 0.066±0.004 U·kg−1, P<0.01) in SHR without significantly affecting cardiac output and heart rate, whereas in the WKY rats no significant systemic haemodynamic changes were noted. Increased splanchnic blood flow and a reduced splanchnic vascular resistance were found in the WKY rats; however, in the SHR rats, blood flows (ml·min−1·g tissue−1) increased and organ vascular resistances (kPa·ml−1·min−1·100 g tissue−1) decreased significantly (P<0.001) in the heart (5.25±0.28 vs 7.27±0.31 and 0.04±0.00 vs 0.02±0.00; P<0.01), and kidneys (6.53±0.4 vs 7.98±0.2 and 0.03±0.00 vs 0.02±0.00; P<0.01) respectively. Nevertheless, in both rat strains, absolute cardiac mass and left ventricular weight were reduced; but in the SHR rats, the relative weight of the heart and left ventricle to body weight was also reduced significantly (3.79±0.06 vs 3.31±0.09; P<0.01 and 2.85±0.06 vs 2.70±0.06; P<0.01, respectively). Thus, these studies show that nitrendipine, a slow-entry channel calcium blocker, regressed cardiac mass in rats through mechanisms that may be dissociated from their haemodynamic changes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 1984