Effect of antihypertensive agents - captopril and nifedipine - on the functional properties of rat heart mitochondria.

Objectives: Investigation of acute effect on cellular bioenergetics provides the opportunity to characterize the possible adverse effects of drugs more comprehensively. This study aimed to investigate the changes in biochemical and biophysical properties of heart mitochondria induced by captopril and nifedipine antihypertensive treatment.

Materials And Methods: Male, 12-week-old Wistar rats in two experimental models (in vivo and in vitro) were used.

The impact of lifestyle-related risk factors on cardiac response to ischemia and possibilities to restore impaired ischemic tolerance.

Risk factors (RF) of cardiovascular diseases associated with modern lifestyle, such as stress, chronically increased blood pressure, hyperglycemia and dyslipidemia have a negative impact on the heart exposed to ischemia: they may facilitate its lethal injury (myocardial infarction) and occurrence of sudden death due to ventricular arrhythmias. On the other hand, some stressful stimuli related to RF including reactive oxygen species, transient episodes of ischemia (hypoxia), high glucose and other may play a dual role in the pathogenesis of ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury (IRI). Besides their deleterious effects, these factors may trigger adaptive processes in the heart resulting in greater resistance against IRI, which is also a characteristic feature of the female myocardium.