Activity of a new hydrogen sulfide-releasing aspirin (ACS14) on pathological cardiovascular alterations induced by glutathione depletion in rats

• DOI: 10.1016/j.ejphar.2010.08.039
• Publication Date: 2010-09-04T10:35:52Z
• Authors: Giuseppe Rossoni; Barbara Manfredi; Valerio Tazzari; Anna Sparatore; Silvio Trivulzio; Piero Del Soldato; Ferruccio Berti
• Keywords: Male; Metabolic Syndrome; 0301 basic medicine; 0303 health sciences; Aspirin; Consciousness; L-Lactate Dehydrogenase; Myocardium; Blood Pressure; Heart; Myocardial Reperfusion Injury; Glutathione; Rats; 3. Good health; Oxidative Stress; 03 medical and health sciences; Glutathione depletion; H 2S-releasing aspirin; Hypertension; Ischemia/reperfusion; Metabolic syndrome; Gastric Mucosa; Heart Rate; Malondialdehyde; Animals; Endothelium, Vascular; Hydrogen Sulfide; Creatine Kinase; Aorta

We investigated the effects of the hydrogen sulfide (H₂S)-releasing derivatives of aspirin (ACS14) and salicylic acid (ACS21) in a rat model of metabolic syndrome induced by glutathione (GSH) depletion, causing hypertension and other pathological cardiovascular alterations. GSH depletion was induced in normal rats by the GSH-synthase inhibitor buthionine sulfoximine (BSO, 30 mmol/L day for seven days in the drinking water). Systolic blood pressure and heart rate were measured daily by the tail-cuff method, and plasma thromboxane B₂, 6-keto-prostaglandin F(2α), 8-isoprostane, GSH, insulin and glucose were determined at the end of the seven-day BSO schedule. In addition, ischemia/reperfusion-induced myocardial dysfunction and endothelial dysfunction were assayed on isolated heart and aortic rings, respectively. Unlike aspirin and salicylic acid, ACS14 and ACS21 reduced BSO-induced hypertension, also lowering plasma levels of thromboxane B₂, 8-isoprostane and insulin, while GSH remained in the control range. Neither ACS14 nor ACS21 caused gastric lesions. Both restored the endothelial dysfunction observed in aortic rings from BSO-treated rats, and in ischemia/reperfusion experiments they lowered left ventricular end-diastolic pressure, consequently improving the developed pressure and the maximum rise and fall of left ventricular pressure. Together with this improvement of heart mechanics there were reductions in the activity of creatine kinase and lactate dehydrogenase in the cardiac perfusate. This implies that H₂S released by both ACS14 and ACS21 was involved in protecting the heart from ischemia/reperfusion, and significantly limited vascular endothelial dysfunction in aortic tissue and the related hypertension.