Cyanidin 3-O-glucoside prevents the development of maladaptive cardiac hypertrophy and diastolic heart dysfunction in 20-week-old spontaneously hypertensive rats

The present study investigated the effects of cyanidin 3-O-glucoside (C3G) in cardiomyocytes (CM) and fibroblasts exposed to endothelin 1 (ET1), as well as in the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) model, alone or in combination with hydrochlorothiazide (HCT). Adult rat CM and cardiac fibroblasts (CF) were pretreated with C3G and co-incubated with ET1 (10−7 M) for 24 hours. Five-week-old male SHR and their normotensive controls, Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY), received one of 4 treatments via oral gavage daily for 15 weeks: (1) water (control); (2) C3G (10 mg per kg per day); (3) HCT (10 mg per kg per day); (4) C3G + HCT (10 mg per kg per day each). Blood pressure (BP) was measured at 1, 8 and 15 weeks. Echocardiography measurements were performed at 15 weeks. C3G prevented ET1-induced CM death and hypertrophy. Stimulating CF with ET1 did not induce their phenoconversion; nevertheless, C3G inhibited un-stimulated CF differentiation. HCT slowed the rise of systolic BP (SBP) in the SHR over time (week 1: SHRs control = 161 ± 6.3 mmHg, SHRs HCT = 129 ± 6.3 mmHg; week 15: SHRs control = 201 ± 7.3 mmHg, SHRs HCT = 168 ± 7.3 mmHg), but C3G had no effect on SBP (week 1: SHRs control = 161 ± 6.3 mmHg, SHRs C3G = 126 ± 6.3 mmHg; week 15: SHRs control = 201 ± 7.3 mmHg, SHRs C3G = 186 ± 7.3 mmHg). SHRs treated with C3G, HCT, and C3G + HCT had lower left ventricular mass and shorter isovolumetric relaxation time compared to control SHRs. C3G ameliorated cardiac hypertrophy and diastolic dysfunction in SHRs.