Prolonged L-arginine on cardiovascular mass and myocardial hemodynamics and collagen in aged spontaneously hypertensive rats and normal rats.

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This study was designed to examine whether L-arginine could prevent hypertension- and age-related impairment of coronary hemodynamics and cardiac fibrosis in aged (80-week-old) rats. To differentiate between hypertension- and age-related changes, the study was performed in both normotensive Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKYs) and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). Male 1-year-old rats of both strains were divided into 2 groups and given either placebo or L-arginine (1.2 g/L) in drinking water. After 6 months, systemic and coronary hemodynamics (radionuclide-labeled microspheres), right and left ventricular and aortic mass indexes, and ventricular hydroxyproline (an estimate of collagen) concentrations were determined. In the aged WKYs, L-arginine did not affect any of the examined variables except slightly reducing total peripheral resistance. In contrast, L-arginine diminished arterial pressure, total peripheral resistance, and left ventricular and aortic mass indexes in the SHRs; it also increased coronary flow reserve and reduced minimal coronary flow resistance and myocardial hydroxyproline concentration. These findings demonstrated that L-arginine ameliorated adverse cardiovascular effects of hypertension in aged SHRs, as demonstrated by reduced arterial pressure and total peripheral resistance, diminished left ventricular mass and collagen content, and improved coronary hemodynamics. There were no important effects in the old WKYs.