This study was performed to validate echocardiographic and Doppler techniques for the assessment of left ventricular (LV) diastolic function in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and normotensive Wistar rats. In 11 Wistar rats and 20 SHR, we compared 51 sets of invasive and Doppler LV diastolic indexes. Noninvasive indexes of LV relaxation were related to the minimal rate of pressure decline...

Diabetes, and possibly the hypothyroidism that attends diabetes, impairs mechanical relaxation of ventricular muscle, in part by depressing the rate of Ca2+ uptake by sarcoplasmic reticulum. Left ventricular hypertrophy exacerbates the adverse effects of diabetes on cardiac performance, but its effects on relaxation variables have not been well characterized. We examined the impact of streptozo...

Visfatin, also known as extracellular pre-B-cell colony-enhancing factor (PBEF) and nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (Nampt), is an adipocytokine whose circulating levels are enhanced in metabolic disorders, such as type 2 diabetes mellitus and obesity. Circulating visfatin levels have been positively associated with vascular damage and endothelial dysfunction. Here, we investigated the a...

Endothelial vasomotor function decreases with increasing age. Extracellular superoxide dismutase (ecSOD) protects against vascular dysfunction in several disease states. The purpose of this study was to determine whether endogenous ecSOD protects against endothelial dysfunction in old mice. Vasomotor function of the aorta was studied ex vivo in wild-type (ecSOD(+/+)) and ecSOD-deficient (ecSOD(...

Background—Hypercholesterolemia (HC) impairs acetylcholine-induced relaxation but has little effect on that caused by the NO donor sodium nitroprusside (SNP), suggesting that acetylcholine releases less NO from the endothelium in HC. The relaxation to authentic NO gas, however, is also impaired in HC aortic smooth muscle, indicating an abnormal smooth muscle response. NO relaxes arteries by bot...