Sodium Ferulate Attenuated Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension In Monocrotaline Treated Rats

Background:Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a fatal disorder that is associated with remodeling of the pulmonary vasculature.Endothelial dysfunction plays an important role in the progression of pulmonary arterial hypertension.Previous studies showed that sodium ferulate can improve endothelial function by increasing nitric oxide(NO) production.Sodium ferulate has antithrombotic,platelet aggregation inhibitory and antioxidant activities.We hypothesized that daily supplemenation of sodium ferulate attenuate monocrotaline induced pulmonary artery hypertension in rats.Methods:Our hypotheses was tested in a modle of pulmonary arterial hypertension induced with monocrotaline in rats.Fifty rats were randomly divided into four groups: normal control(treated with saline and distilled water,n=8 ),other rats received monocrotaline injection were randomly assigned to preventive group(treated with sodium ferulate,n=12),positive control group(treated with distilled water,n=15) and treatment group(treated with distilled water then with sodium ferulate,n=15).We measuered the right ventricular systolic pressure,the ratio of right ventricular weight to weight of the left ventricle plus septum.We investigated the changes in the expression of endothelial nitric oxide synthase(eNOS) in lung and endothelin-1 (ET-1) level in plasma,as well as the histological changes in pulmonary arteries in the different groups.Result:Up to the day 35,pulmonary arterial hypertension was successful developed in the positive control group rats.Compared with positive control group,sodium ferulate significantly reduced right ventricle systolic pressure(77.0? 0.8 vs. 59.5?.1mmHg,p＜0.05) and the ratio of right ventricular weight to weight of the left ventricle plus septum in the preventive group(0.68?.10 vs.0.48?.10,p＜0.05). Sodium ferulate significantly restored the expression of eNOS in lung in the preventive and reversal groups.However,sodium ferulate didn't significantly reduce the plasma ET-1 level in the preventive and reversal groups.Conclusion:sodium ferulate attenuated pulmonary arterial hypertension in the monocrotaline-treated rats.The protective effects may be associated with the restoration of expression of eNOS expression.