Diverse effects of long-term treatment with imidapril and irbesartan on cell growth signal, apoptosis and collagen type I expression in the left ventricle of spontaneously hypertensive rats.

Abstract To compare diverse effects of angiotensin II type 1 receptor antagonists (irbesartan) and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (imidapril) on left ventricular remodeling in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). Thirty male SHR were randomly divided into three groups: SHR-IR (treated with irbesartan, 50 mg/kg), SHR-IM (imidapril, 3 mg/kg), SHR-C (placebo). Ten male Wistar Kyoto rats (WKY) treated with placebo acted as the control. All treatments were administered once daily from 14 to 27 weeks of age. Imidapril and irbesartan have the similar inhibitor effects on blood pressure and left ventricular mass indexes in SHR. Despite both drugs suppressed ERK-1 protein expression, decreased cardiomyocytes apoptosis index, blocked collagen type I deposition, reduced TGF-β 1 gene expression in SHR, imidapril elicits a stronger inhibitory effect. Irbesartan had little effect on MKP-1 protein expression, but imidapril decreased it significantly. As a result, the ERK-1/MKP-1 ratio in SHR-IR was significantly greater than that in SHR-IM ( P