Atrial natriuretic peptide prevents diabetes-induced endothelial dysfunction

Abstract

Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) exerts beneficial effects on the cardiovascular system in part by exerting antioxidant activity. Given that oxidant stress is a key cause of endothelial dysfunction in diabetes, we investigated whether ANP improves endothelial function in rats with diabetes. Rats were injected with streptozotocin (55 mg/kg iv) to induce type 1 diabetes or the citrate vehicle as controls (n = 12). After 4 weeks the diabetic rats were treated with ANP (10 pmol/kg/min sc, n = 12) or the antioxidant tempol (1.5 mmol/kg/day sc, n = 11), both by osmotic minipump, ramipril (1 mg/kg per day in the drinking water) or remained untreated (n = 11). After a further 4 weeks, anaesthetised ..