Facilitation of myocardial PI3K/Akt/nNOS signaling contributes to ethanol-evoked hypotension in female rats.

Background The mechanism by which ethanol reduces cardiac output (CO) and blood pressure (BP) in female rats remains unclear. We tested the hypothesis that enhancement of myocardial phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt signaling and related nNOS and/or eNOS activity constitutes a cellular mechanism for the hemodynamic effects of ethanol.