Effect of valsartan on postprandial plasma inflammatory factors in patients with essential hypertension / 中南大学学报(医学版)

OBJECTIVE@#To explore the effect of valsartan on the concentrations of plasma inflammatory factors after a high-fat meal in patients with essential hypertension in very short time.@*METHODS@#Fifty hypertensive patients and 25 healthy controls were studied. Patients randomly accepted lacidipine 4 mg/d (lacidipine group) or valsartan 80 mg/d (valsartan group) for 1 week. The concentrations of plasma lipid profiles, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) and soluble P-selectin were measured in fasting state and at 4 h after a single high-fat meal in all subjects at baseline and in patients after 1 week.@*RESULTS@#The concentrations of postprandial plasma hsCRP and soluble P-selectin significantly increased after a high-fat meal in patients (P < 0.05), as compared with those at fasting levels, but not in the controls. The postprandial plasma triglyceride concentrations significantly increased in the healthy controls (P < 0.05), but were lower than those in hypertensive patients (P < 0.01). Postprandial change in plasma concentration of triglyceride was significantly correlated with those of log (hsCRP) (r = 0.344)and soluble P-selectin (r = 0.432), respectively (n = 75, both P < 0.01). Lipids profiles did not change significantly after 1 week. There was no significant difference between the fasting and postprandial plasma concentrations of either hsCRP or soluble P-selectin in valsartan group, while the postprandial increments of inflammatory factors were still significant in the lacidipine group.@*CONCLUSION@#High-fat meal can induce postprandial inflammation response in patients with essential hypertension. Valsartan effectively attenuates this postprandial inflammation response within a very short time.

Effect of niacin on adiponectin levels in the adipocytes secretion in rabbits / 中南大学学报(医学版)

OBJECTIVE@#To explore the effect of niacin on the serum adiponectin concentration in hypercholesterolemia rabbit and the adiponectin concentration secreted by adipocytes in normal rabbits.@*METHODS@#Ten male New Zealand white rabbits fed with high cholesterol diet for 8 weeks were randomly divided into 2 groups: (1) The high cholesterol group maintained a high cholesterol diet for 8 weeks. (2) The same cholesterol diet plus niacin (0.4g/kg*d ) were administrated for 6 weeks in the niacin group. A control group was fed with normal diet for 14 weeks. Subcutaneous adipose from the control group was collected for adipocyte culture. Matured adipocytes were incubated with various concentrations of niacin (0, 0.25, 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0micromol/L). Adiponectin concentrations in the serum and adipocyte culture supernatant were measured by enzyme-linked-immunosorbent assay.@*RESULTS@#Compared with the control group, rabbits in the high cholesterol group showed higher serum levels of total cholesterol, and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), all of which were significantly reduced by niacin treatment (P<0.01),and serum high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) significantly increased (P<0.01). At 8th week, the mean adiponectin concentration of rabbits fed with high cholesterol diet was significantly lower than that of the control group[(1.268+/-0.039)mg/L vs.(1.449+/-0.107)mg/L,P<0.01]. Niacin treatment significantly elevated the serum adiponectin level which was positively related to HDL-C,and negatively related to TC and LDL-C. Cell experiment in vitro indicated that niacin could significantly induce the adiponectin secretion of adipocytes in a dose-dependent manner.@*CONCLUSION@#Niacin can significantly promote the adiponectin secretion of adipocytes, suggesting that niacin probably has an ability of elevating the serum adiponectin level in addition to lipid-lowering effect.

Atorvastatin reduces the expression of COX-2 mRNA in peripheral blood monocytes in patients with acute myocardial infarction and modulates the early inflammatory response / 中华心血管病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To measure the effect of atorvastatin on COX-2 expression in monocytes in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Forty patients with AMI (AMI group) and 18 patients with stable coronary heart disease (control group) were enrolled, and patients with AMI were randomly given routine therapy (n = 20) and routine therapy plus atorvastatin (20 mg/day, n = 20) for a week. Peripheral blood monocytes for each participant including patients with AMI were isolated and cultured for 24 hours. During the culture, monocytes in patients with pretreatment AMI were incubated with celecoxib in different concentration (0, 0.1, 1 and 10 micromol/L). COX-2 mRNA expression in monocytes was measured by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR); concentrations of interleukin-6 (IL-6) in supernatant from monocytes and plasma hs-CRP levels were measured by using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>COX-2 expression in monocytes in patients with AMI (0.92 +/- 0.13) was significantly higher than that in the control subjects (0.19 +/- 0.08), and decreased by 66% after atorvastatin (compared with that on routine therapy, P < 0.05); IL-6 secretions of monocytes in the AMI group (204.8 +/- 45.6 ng/L) increased dramatically compared with those in the control group (40.9 +/- 1.2 ng/L, P < 0.05), and reduced dramatically by 58% when incubated with 10 micromol/L celecoxib (P < 0.05) in a concentration-dependent manner; plasma levels of CRP in the AMI group (43.3 +/- 14.9 mg/L) significantly increased compared with those in the control group (1.7 +/- 0.8 mg/L), and reduced by 62% after atorvastatin (compared with those in the routine therapy group, P < 0.05). COX-2 expression in monocytes in the AMI group was positively correlated with both secretions of IL-6 and plasma level of CRP (r = 0.636 and 0.662, respectively, both P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>There is an inflammatory activation in peripheral blood monocytes in patients with early AMI, and the monocytes-derived COX-2 may play an important role in promoting early inflammatory process. Atorvastatin may decrease COX-2 expression in peripheral blood monocytes in patients with AMI and cyclooxygenase-dependent pathway might be correlated with the anti-inflammation mechanism of statin.</p>

Significance and expression of cyclooxygenase-2 mRNA in peripheral blood monocytes in patients with acute coronary syndrome / 中南大学学报(医学版)

OBJECTIVE@#To determine the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) mRNA in peripheral blood monocytes in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS), and to explore the effect of the expression of COX-2 mRNA in ACS.@*METHODS@#The expressions of COX-2 mRNA in peripheral blood monocytes from 18 normal subjects and 42 ACS patients were analyzed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and the monocytes from patients were incubated with celecoxib in vitro. The concentrations of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) in supernates of monocytes were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA).@*RESULTS@#The expression of COX-2 mRNA and the secrections of IL-6 and MMP-9 in peripheral blood monocytes in ACS patients significantly increased compared with those from normal controls [0.61 +/- 0.17 vs 0.11 +/- 0.09; (97.24 +/- 11.21) ng/L vs (22.15 +/- 6.30) ng/L; (41.20 +/- 8.41) g/L vs (11.76 +/- 4.23) g/L; all P < 0.05, respectively]. Celecoxib reduced IL-6 and MMP-9 secretion level of monocytes from ACS patients up to 48% and 50% respectively (all P < 0.05), in a concentration-dependent manner.@*CONCLUSION@#COX-2 in peripheral blood monocytes may play an important role in the acute coronary syndrome.