The antihypertensive and antihypertrophic effect of lycopene is not affected by and is independent of age

Abstract

• Hypertension and aging in SHR induces cardiac, vascular and renal alterations. • Lycopene decreased blood pressure in young and adult SHR. • Lycopene reduced hypertrophy and fibrosis in heart, kidney and aorta. • Lycopene had beneficial effect on oxidative stress on SHR. Hypertension of SHR appears at an early age and progressively increases. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of lycopene in SHR with mild hypertension (young rats) or with high level of hypertension (adult rats). Four-weeks treatment with 10 mg/kg/day of lycopene progressively decreased blood pressure in young (from 144 ± 2 to 119 ± 3 mmHg) and adult (from 177 ± 5 to 159 ± 7 mmHg) SHR. Heart and renal hypertrophy and fibrosis were increased in adult compared to young SHR and lycopene, regardless of the age of the rats, improved the injury in both organs. Although aging induced morphological and functional alterations in the aorta, the treatment was only effective in preventing the former. Lycopene helped to improve all the parameters linked to oxidative stress determined in this study. In conclusion, lycopene treatment improved the age-associated harmful changes in hypertension, cardiovascular and renal remodelling, and indicators of oxidant-antioxidant systems in both young and adult SHR.