ABSTRACT
Objective: To investigate the effect of endocannabinoid system on cardiac hypertrophy in experimental rats with chronic intermittent hypoxia and to study the impact of endocannabinoid antagonist, rimonabant in such pathological processing. Methods: A total of 48 male Wistar rats were divided into 6 groups. 4 and 6 weeks of Normal control group, 4 and 6 weeks of Hypoxia group, 4 and 6 weeks of Hypoxia with rimonabant intervention group. n=8 in each group. The rats were sacrificed to measure left ventricular mass index (LVMI), the myocardial cell morphological changes were observed by optical microscope, the expression of cardiac calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) and cardiotrophin-1 (CT-1) were detected by immunohistochemistry at 4 and 6 weeks respectively. Results: Compared with 4 and 6 weeks of Normal control group, the LVMI, cardiac hypertrophy condition, CaMKII and CT-1 were increased in 4 and 6 weeks of Hypoxia group, all P Conclusion: The Chronic intermittent hypoxia could induce myocardial hypertrophy via endocannabinoid system disorders, such pathological processing could be reduced by rimonabant intervention.