Myocardial and vascular effects of perindopril, a new converting enzyme inhibitor, during hypertension development in spontaneously hypertensive rats.

The effects of a new angiotensin I converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI), perindopril (P), on genetic hypertension development (GHD), on mesenteric arteriolar compliance and reactivity to noradrenaline and on myocardial and aortic hypertrophy, have been investigated at intervals in SHRs. P (4 mg/kg, q.d.) was administered by gavage from the 4th to the 20th week of age and measurements were performed 20 hr after the preceding drug intake. P completely prevented GHD, maintaining systolic blood pressure (SBP) below 130 mmHg during the whole treatment period. Furthermore, 7 weeks after treatment withdrawal, SBP of previously treated SHRs was still significantly lower than that of controls. Vascular compliance and internal diameter of the mesenteric arteriole were significantly increased in P-treated SHRs as compared to controls at the age of 20 weeks but these effects did not persist 7 weeks after treatment withdrawal. P did not affect mesenteric arteriolar reactivity to noradrenaline. Finally, P significantly reduced myocardial and aortic hypertrophy in SHRs. Thus P strongly opposed the morphological and functional vascular alterations which usually occur in SHRs during GHD. This property, presumably related to converting enzyme inhibition within the vascular wall, probably contributes to a large extent to, but is not exclusively responsible for, the drug-induced prevention of GHD.