Hypertensive urgency can be expressed as a systolic blood pressure of at least 180 mmHg and/or diastolic 110 mmHg, without correlated end-organ damage. Elevated causes endothelial injury by elevating the permeability and local activation clotting cascade (platelet fibrin deposition), resulting in fibrinoid necrosis intimal proliferation. In hypertensive urgencies, should lowered over period hrs...

Aminopeptidase-A (APA) is a less well-studied enzyme of the renin-angiotensin system. We propose that it is involved in cardiac angiotensin (ANG) metabolism and its pathologies. ANG-(1-7) can ameliorate remodeling after myocardial injury. The aims of this study are to (1) develop mass spectrometric (MS) approaches for the assessment of ANG processing by APA within the myocardium; and (2) invest...

Previous studies from our group have demonstrated that sevoflurane post-conditioning (SPC) protects against myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury via elevating the intranuclear expression of hypoxia inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1α). However, diabetic SPC is associated with decreased myocardial protection and disruption of the HIF-1 signaling pathway. Previous studies have demonstrated that co...

There is strong evidence to suggest that angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) protect against local myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. This study was designed to explore whether ACEIs exert cardioprotective effects in a swine model of cardiac arrest (CA) and resuscitation. Male pigs were randomly assigned to three groups: sham‑operated group, saline treatment group and en...

BACKGROUND Acute myocardial ischemia results in scar formation with ventricular dilatation and eventually heart failure. Placental growth factor (PlGF) is reported to stimulate angiogenesis and improve cardiac function. In this study, it was hypothesized that intramyocardial injection of PlGF contained in nanoparticles can be released at the site of action for an extended time period as a susta...

We recently found that overexpression of angiotensin (Ang)-converting enzyme 2, which metabolizes Ang-II to Ang-(1-7) and Ang-I to Ang-(1-9), may improve left ventricular remodeling in diabetic cardiomyopathy. Here we aimed to test whether chronic infusion of Ang-(1-7) can dose-dependently ameliorate left ventricular remodeling and function in a rat model of diabetic cardiomyopathy and whether ...

We developed myocardial infarction-prone rabbits (WHHLMI rabbits) by selectively breeding coronary atherosclerosis-prone WHHL rabbits. To examine the serum/plasma biochemical parameters of this animal model, we assayed the lipid and glucose levels, and enzyme activities of WHHLMI rabbits from 2 to 26 months of age using solid phase analysis. The results showed a good correlation with those meas...

Introduction Since ventricular remodeling after myocardial infarction (MI), which causes ventricular dysfunction, is strongly associated with the prognosis, the prevention of remodeling is an important therapeutic concern in the management of myocardial infarction. Ventricular remodeling is usually determined by infarct size, ventricular loading condition, and infarct artery patency. Although r...

The present study was designed to investigate whether Sida rhombifolia Linn (Malvaceae), a natural herb, would attenuate the acute myocardial infarction in isoproterenol (ISP)-treated rat model via maintaining cardiac function and activities of endogenous antioxidant enzymes. Heart tissue enzyme analysis in albino (Wistar) male rats, such as LPO, GSH, GPX, GST, SOD, CAT, CK-MB, MDA and biochemi...

Pyruvate carboxylation in the isolated perfused rat heart was studied under steady-state conditions. A biotin deficiency resulting in a 90% decrease in myocardial pyruvate carboxylase left the pyruvate carboxylation rate unchanged. Pyruvate carboxylation in heart muscle must therefore take place by means of an enzyme which does not contain biotin. The kinetic properties and mass-action ratio of...