Amlodipine Ameliorates Up-Regulation of ET-1 in Left Ventricle of Hypercholesterolemia Rabbits

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran

2 Biotechnology Research Center & Drug Applied Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

3 Drug Applied Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

4 Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran

Abstract

Objective(s)
In addition to antihypertensive effects, amlodipine may exhibit cardiovascular protective effects in heart tissue. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of amlodipine and/or high cholesterol diet on blood, heart tissue concentration and mRNA expression of endothelin-1 (ET-1) in male New Zealand white rabbits.
Materials and Methods
A total of 40 male New Zealand rabbits were divided into four groups: the normal control group, normal group receiving amlodipine, high-cholesterol diet group and high-cholesterol diet with amlodipine group. After 8 weeks, all the animals anesthetized and blood or tissues samples were collected.
Results
After 8 weeks of a high cholesterol diet, the group with such a diet had a significantly higher ratio of left ventricle (LV) weight to body weight than the control group (P= 0.0001). After treatment with amlodipine for 8 weeks, ET-1 level was reduced considerably in comparison with the control (P= 0.01) and high- cholesterol diet groupes (P= 0.01). Amlodipine consumption caused significant reduction (P= 0.01) in the level of ET-1 in heart tissues of high-cholesterol diet group but it had no remarkable effect on the reduction of heart tissue ET-1 in amlodipine group compared with the control group.
Conclusion
The present study demonstrates that ventricular prepro-ET-1 mRNA quantitatively increases in the high- cholesterol diet rabbits which results in development of ventricular hypertrophy. It seems that the treatment with amlodipine retards the progression of LV hypertrophy through attenuation of ET-1 levels independent of lipid changes.

Keywords


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