Improved myocardial capillarisation in spontaneously hypertensive rats treated with nifedipine

The effect of long term administration of nifedipine on myocardial capillarity was studied in spontaneously hypertensive rats. Nifedipine was given for 20 weeks, mixed into commercial rat chow (0.3 g per 1 kg). Untreated spontaneously hypertensive rats had higher arterial blood pressure and developed cardiomegaly when compared with Wistar-Kyoto rats used as controls. Nifedipine administration in spontaneously hypertensive rats lowered the arterial blood pressure and reduced cardiac weight; however, both values remained far above those for controls. Myocardial capillarity was determined using the recently introduced method of capillary domains. Hearts from untreated spontaneously hypertensive rats were characterised by greater and more variable intercapillary spacing than those from controls. The treatment of spontaneously hypertensive rats with nifedipine resulted in normalisation of morphometric indices characterising capillary spacing, probably as a result of stimulation of capillary growth as indicated by a significant decrease in myocyte to capillary ratio. Thus, despite persistent hypertension and cardiomegaly the treatment of spontaneously hypertensive rats with nifedipine restored mean intercapillary distance and index of heterogeneity of capillary spacing to normal values.