Abstract:
Introduction:
Cardiac death is the leading cause of death in uremic patients.
This is mainly due to structural changes in which both the endothelin and the aldosterone system are playing crucial roles.
Uremia induces an activation of both systems, followed by cardiovascular alterations such as leftventricular hypertrophy and hypertension.
Despite extensive investigations, only limited information exists on the interrelationsship of this two systems.
Methods:
We compared four groups of male, subtotal nephrectomized Sprague-Dawley rats. The groups either were treated with an aldosterone infusion with and without additional administration of an ETAB receptor antagonist or oral spironolactone medication with and without additional blockade of the ETA receptor.
All groups were fed with low natrium and high protein food.
After 12 weeks of continuous administration of the above mentioned substances we started the invasive hemodynamic experiments.
Results:
Blockade of the ETA receptor induced in the spironolactone treated group a significant inotropic effect and at the same time a significant decrease of the plasma aldosterone level compared to the other three groups.
The additional treatment with an ETAB receptor antagonist led to a slight, not significant, negativ inotropic effect in the aldosterone group. In the same group the additional ETAB receptor blockade also induced a significant decrease in systolic and diastolic blood pressure and peripheral vascular resistance.
Conclusion:
In this study the negative cardiovascular alterations in uremic rats mediated by aldosterone infusion could not be completely blocked by administration of the aldosterone antagonist spironolactone.
Because of the observed effects induced by blockade of the ETA receptor on aldosterone levels and inotropy, we postulate that not only the ETAB receptor, but also the ETA receptor is involved in the regulation of the RAAS system in uremic rats.