Abstract Objective: In addition to pH regulation, Na+/H+ exchanger (NIE) has been shown to facilitate cell growth and proliferation. However, the effects of long-term inhibition of Na+/H+ exchange on cardiac structural and functional remodeling post myocardial infarction (MI) are still controversial. The present study was therefore carried ont to further investigate the effects of long-term treatment with cariporide, a specific inhibitor of NHE-1, on cardiac remodeling after MI in rots; Methods: Male Wistar rots that underwent coronary ligation were randomly selected for cariporide treatment starting 6 h after induction of MI or no treatment. Treatment was continued up to 6 weeks post MI, after which, the arterial, venous and left ventricular catheters were chronically implanted. Twenty-four h later, after hemodynamic signals were recorded in conscious rats, they were sacrificed and hearts were taken out for morphological examinations; Results: Cariporide treatment decreased the heart weight and heart weight to body weight ratio (both P<0.05), decreased left ventricular end-diastohc pressure (P<0.001), improved myocardial contractility (dP/dtmax) (P<0.05) and tended to increase the survival of treated rots compared to that of untreated infarct rats; Conclusion: The results of the present study indicate that the long-term inhibition of NHE with cariporide can attenuate cardiac structural re-modeling and improve left ventricular dysfunction in infarcted rats, and suggest that Na+/H+ exchange inhibition could be an effective therapeutic strategy for myocardial infarction-induced heart failure.
XIA Qin-gui, Oliver Chung, Heidi Spitznagel, Thomas Unger. LONG-TERM INHIBITION OF Na+/H+ EXCHANGE ATTENUATES CARDIAC REMODELING AFTER MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION IN RATS. Journal of Zhejiang University-SCIENCE A (Applied Physics & Engineering), 2001, 2(4): 439-444.