Cross-talk related to insulin and angiotensin II binding on myocardial remodelling in diabetic rat hearts.

This study focused on the regulation and affinity modulation of angiotensin II (Ang II) binding to its receptor subtypes (AT(1)- and AT(2)-receptor) in the coronary endothelium (CE) and cardiomyocytes (CM) of Sprague-Dawley male rats in normal (N), normal treated with losartan (NL), streptozotocin-induced diabetic (D), insulin-treated diabetic (DI), losartan-treated diabetic (DL), and diabetic co-treated with insulin and losartan (DIL). Heart perfusion was used to estimate Ang II binding affinity (tau=1/k-(n)) to its receptor subtypes on CE and CM. Diabetes decreased tau value on CE and increased it on CM as compared to normal.

Effect of type-1 diabetes mellitus on the regulation of insulin and endothelin-1 receptors in rat hearts.

This project assesses the treatment role with insulin and (or) angiotensin II receptor subtype-1 (AT1-R) blocker (ARB) on insulin receptor and endothelin-1 receptor subtype (ETA-R and ETB-R) regulation in rat hearts suffering from insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). Animals were divided into 6 groups: groups 1, 3, and 5 were controls consisting of normal, diabetic (streptozotocin-treated, once at 0 time), and diabetic supplemented daily with insulin, respectively, whereas groups 2, 4, and 6 were the controls treated daily with losartan. One month after enrollment, rats were sacrificed and samples of cardiac tissue were snapped frozen for immunostaining and Western blotting.