Upregulation of Heme Oxygenase-1 in Response to Wild Thyme Treatment Protects against Hypertension and Oxidative Stress.

Nevena Mihailovic-Stanojevic,Una-Jovana Vajić,Zoran Miloradović,Branko Bugarski,Jelica Grujić-Milanović,Milan Ivanov,Đurđica Jovović,Draženka Komes,Danijela Karanović

doi:10.1155/2016/1458793

Nevena Mihailovic-Stanojevic, Una-Jovana Vajić + Show 7 more

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https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/1458793

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Abstract

High blood pressure is the most powerful contributor to the cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, and inverse correlation between consumption of polyphenol-rich foods or beverages and incidence of cardiovascular diseases gains more importance. Reactive oxygen species plays an important role in the development of hypertension. We found that wild thyme (a spice plant, rich in polyphenolic compounds) induced a significant decrease of blood pressure and vascular resistance in hypertensive rats. The inverse correlation between vascular resistance and plasma heme oxygenase-1 suggests that endogenous vasodilator carbon monoxide generated by heme oxidation could account for this normalization of blood pressure. Next product of heme oxidation, bilirubin (a chain-breaking antioxidant that acts as a lipid peroxyl radical scavenger), becomes significantly increased after wild thyme treatment and induces the reduction of plasma lipid peroxidation in hypertensive, but not in normotensive rats. The obtained results promote wild thyme as useful supplement for cardiovascular interventions.

Highlights

High blood pressure is certainly the most prevalent and powerful contributor to the cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in the majority of industrialized countries, with essential hypertension accounting for about 95% of all cases of hypertension [1]
Mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate (HR), and TPVR of spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR)-C were significantly higher compared to the values of these parameters in W-C group (p < 0.001), but without changes of CI
Bolus injection of saline solution containing dry thyme extract resulted in a significant decrease of MAP (p < 0.001) only in the group of SHR-TE, while TPVR was reduced in both SHR-TE (p < 0.01) and W-TE (p < 0.001) rats compared to their respective controls (Figures 1(a) and 1(d)) without changes in CI (Figure 1(c))

Summary

Introduction

High blood pressure is certainly the most prevalent and powerful contributor to the cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in the majority of industrialized countries, with essential hypertension accounting for about 95% of all cases of hypertension [1]. It should be noted that there is a growing body of evidence suggesting the effectiveness of alternative therapeutic approaches in the treatment of various disorders, including hypertension. (wild thyme, TE) has traditionally been used as a spice plant, whose aqueous extract is rich in the polyphenolic compounds [7] that are considered to be responsible for their antioxidant effects. Water extracts of plants from Lamiaceae family, rich in phenolic acids, decreased systolic blood pressure after subcutaneous administration in conscious stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats [9] and inhibit rabbit lung angiotensin I-converting enzyme in vitro [10]. Our previous study showed that aqueous extract obtained from TE induces powerful NOindependent systemic vasodilatation in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) [7]

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