Coronary angiogenesis during morphine and nicotine withdrawal in two-kidney one clip hypertensive (2K1C) rats

This study was aimed to investigate the effects of addiction to nicotine and morphine and their withdrawal on coronary angiogenesis and serum NO concentrations in two-kidney one-clip hypertensive (2K1C) rats.

Male hypertensive rats were divided into the two below groups: Group (1): Rats received saline for 8 weeks (N=8); Group (2): Rats received morphine and nicotine for 8 weeks (n=32). At the end of 8 weeks, the groups (2) were divided into the four sub-groups, which three of them were treated with withdrawal drugs. Following treatments, blood pressure, heart rate, plasma renin activity (PRA), NO concentration and capillary density were measured.

Results showed that blood pressure was significantly reduced in the addicted group when compared to non-addicted (p<0.05). The withdrawal completely reversed blood pressure to the level observed pre-addiction (p<0.05). Coronary angiogenesis was significantly lower in the addicted group in comparistion to normal (p<0.05) but withdrawal of addiction did not improve angiogenesis.

On the basis of the present findings, it may be indicative that the risk of cardiovascular complications in addiction is concurrent to chronic hypertension, which shows the importance of early diagnosis and treatment in clinical condition (Fig. 4, Ref. 59).