ABSTRACT
AIM:To investigate the dependence of the adrenoceptor regulation on oxidative stress in the rats with cardiac injury induced by high sympathetic activity .METHODS: Healthy SD rats were randomly divided into 7 groups:control, model, propranolol (Pro), prazosin (Praz), Pro+Praz, vitamin E (VE) and Pro+Praz+VE.The rats were intraperitoneally injected with norepinephrine ( NE) for continuous 16 d to reproduce cardiac injury , and treated with the respective drugs .During the experimental process , the body weight was recorded .At the end of the experiments , the following parameters were measured:the ventricular remodeling indexes ( cardiac index and hydroxyproline of the left ven-tricle), histopathologic examination , oxidative/antioxidative indexes [MDA, SOD, catalase (CAT), GSH-Px and total an-tioxidant capacity (T-AOC)], and energy metabolism (Na+-K+ATPase and Ca2+-Mg2+ATPase).RESULTS: The in-crease of body weight in model group was significantly slower than that in control group after 9 d of treatment (P<0.05). The cardiac index and left ventricular hypertrophy were significantly increased .Oxidation/antioxidation and energy metabo-lism were disturbed.In Pro, Praz, Pro+Praz and VE groups, the body weight, cardiac index, left ventricular fibrosis and oxidative/antioxidative dysfunction were ameliorated .Pro, Praz and Pro +Praz increased the activity of Na +-K+ATPase and Ca2+-Mg2+ATPase.Treatment with Pro+Praz showed the best result in all of the indexes (P<0.05).CONCLU-SION:The dependence of adrenoceptor regulation plays an important role in the formation of oxidative stress in the process of rat cardiac injury induced by high sympathetic activity .