Protection against ischemia and improvement of cerebral blood flow in genetically hypertensive rats by chronic pretreatment with an angiotensin II AT1 antagonist.

ITO T, YAMAKAWA H, BREGONZIO C, TERRÓN JA, FALCÓN-NERI A, SAAVEDRA JM

STROKE

Año: 2002 vol. 33 p. 2297 - 2297

0039-2499

p class="abstract">BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Pretreatment with angiotensin II AT(1) receptor antagonists protects against cerebral ischemia. We studied whether modulation of cerebral blood flow (CBF) and morphometric changes in brain arteries participated in this protective mechanism. METHODS: We pretreated adult spontaneously hypertensive rats with equally antihypertensive doses of candesartan (0.1 or 0.3 mg/kg per day), nicardipine (0.1 mg/kg per day), or captopril (3.0 mg/kg per day) for 3 or 28 days via subcutaneous osmotic minipumps followed by permanent left middle cerebral artery (MCA) occlusion distal to the origin of the lenticulostriate arteries. We measured CBF by autoradiography with 4-iodo-[N-methyl-(14)C]antipyrine 3 hours after operation and the areas of infarct and tissue swelling 24 hours after operation. Morphometric changes in the MCA were studied after antihypertensive treatment. RESULTS: Twenty-eight days of candesartan pretreatment decreased the infarct area by 31%