We here investigated the effect of bis(1-oxy-2-pyridinethiolato) oxovanadium (IV), [VO(OPT)], against myocardial hypertrophy and cardiac functional recovery in pressure overload-induced hypertrophy in ovariectomized female rats and defined mechanisms underlying its cardioprotective action. Wistar rats subjected to bilateral ovariectomy were further treated with abdominal aortic stenosis. VO(OPT...

IREAD WITH GREAT INTEREST THE PAPER OF Mainwaring and his colleagues concerning the use of supplementation of triiodothyronine following the modified Fontan procedure. The authors found an evident reduction in levels of triiodothyronine in the blood both during and after cardiopulmonary bypass in patients undergoing the Fontan procedure. We have encountered similar findings in 47 consecutive ch...

Ding W, Dong M, Deng J, Yan D, Liu Y, Xu T, Liu J. Polydatin attenuates cardiac hypertrophy through modulation of cardiac Ca handling and calcineurin-NFAT signaling pathway. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 307: H792–H802, 2014. First published July 11, 2014; doi:10.1152/ajpheart.00017.2014.—Polydatin (PD), a resveratrol glucoside extracted from the perennial herbage Polygonum cuspidatum, has be...

Sympathomimetic stimulation, angiotensin II, or endothelin-1 is considered to be an essential stimulus mediating ventricular hypertrophy. Adenosine is known to protect the heart from excessive catecholamine exposure, reduce production of endothelin-1, and attenuate the activation of the renin-angiotensin system. These findings suggest that adenosine may also attenuate myocardial hypertrophy. To...

AIMS beta-Blockers reduce mortality and morbidity in heart failure. Many of their benefits can be explained solely by heart rate reduction (HRR). We aimed to verify whether the beta-blocker, metoprolol, and the pure heart-rate-reducing agent, ivabradine, have the same effects on haemodynamic function, ventricular remodeling, and Ca2+ handling in post-myocardial infarction (MI) heart failure in ...

Following myocardial infarction (MI), the heart undergoes a pathological process known as remodeling, which in many instances results in cardiac dysfunction and ultimately heart failure and death. Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) is a key mediator in the pathogenesis of cardiac remodeling following MI. We thus aimed to inhibit TGF-beta signaling using a novel orally active TGF-beta ty...

BACKGROUND Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are transcription factors of the nuclear receptor superfamily. It has been reported that the thiazolidinediones, which are antidiabetic agents and high-affinity ligands for PPARgamma, regulate growth of vascular cells. In the present study, we examined the role of PPARgamma in angiotensin II (Ang II)-induced hypertrophy of neonatal ...

We studied the effect of an eight-week treatment with telmisartan (5 mg kg(-1)day(-1)) on cardiovascular complications that are associated with type 2 diabetes in a neonatal rat model. Type 2 diabetes was induced by the administration of 90 mg/kg streptozotocin (STZ), ip, in two-day-old rats. The development of diabetes was checked 12 weeks after STZ administration, and the animals were divided...

The present study was undertaken to define the effects of left ventricular hypertrophy on postischemic recovery of myocardial performance and high energy phosphate metabolism. Hemodynamics and 3`P-magnetic resonance spectra were monitored simultaneously in the isolated Langendorff-perfused rat heart during 30 minutes of ischemia and 30 minutes of reperfusion. Left ventricular hypertrophy was pr...

To examine whether the bradykinin-nitric oxide (NO) pathway directly participates in the antihypertrophic property of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors in congestive heart failure, the effects of bradykinin were studied in rat cultured heart cells. Bradykinin (0.1, 1 nM) prevented the phenylephrine-induced increase in protein/DNA content, an index of hypertrophy of heart cells, and...