Effect of mycobacterium bovis bacillus calmette-guerin vaccination on arterial pressure in hypertensive rats / 中国病理生理杂志

ABSTRACT

AIM: The present study was designed to examine the effect of Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination on blood pressure, nitric oxide (NO) production and iNOS expression in hypertensive rats. METHODS: Renal hypertension (RH) were made by renal artery stenosis in SD rats and the sodium induced hypertensive (SH) rats were made by feeding the rats with high sodium chloride diet (5 g NaCl/100 g food). After four weeks, the hypertensive animals were subjected to the experiment. All the rats were vaccinated with BCG (0.1 mL, i.d) and blood pressure were examined every week. Greiss reaction was used to measure the urinary NO excretion and Western blot was applied to probe the iNOS protein expression in aortic tissue. RESULTS: It was shown that one week after BCG vaccination, the blood pressure decreased significantly in hypertensive rats induced by NaCl-overloading and renal artery stenosis, but not in normotensive control rats. Furthermore, the hypotensive effect of BCG vaccination was enhanced by co-administration of L-arginine. A significant increase in NO production was observed in hypertensive rats. Also, Western blot showed BCG vaccination led to an obvious increase in iNOS expression in the aortic tissue of hypertensive, but not of normal control rats. CONCLUSION: BCG vaccination could lower the blood pressure of hypertensive rats through activation of iNOS/NO pathway.