Effect of fenofibrate on the tail artery contraction of rats fed with an atherogenic diet.

The feeding of rats by an atherogenic diet for 4 weeks modified the postsynaptic effect of noradrenaline in the perfused rat tail artery. When fenofibrate (100 mg/kg p.o.) was administered simultaneously, with an atherogenic diet, at the first onset of the experiment this effect was completely inhibited, while when it was administered from the 15th day of the experiment it had no effect on vasoconstrictor responses to noradrenaline. The atherogenic diet decreased the contraction of the rat tail artery at the lower concentrations (3 x 10(-8) - 3 x 10(-7) M) and increased vasoconstrictor response to a maximal concentration (10(-5) M) of noradrenaline. These results suggest that fenofibrate can prevent the changes in the contractile profile of an isolated atherogenic rat tail artery.