Lacidipine is a new dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker that
has been introduced in recent years. It is characterized by long lasting
effect, high vasoselectivity and potent antioxidant properties.
The present work was carried out to screen the pharmacological
effects of lacidipine on isolated rabbit aortic strip and isolated rabbit
heart. Also the effect of lacidipine on experiementally induced
atherosclerosis in rabbits and its role in L-NAME induced hypertension in
rats were evaluated.
Moreover the effect of lacidipine on isoprenaline induced heart
failure in rats was studied, finally we evaluated the protective effect of
lacidipine on cyclosporine induced nephrotoxicity in rats.
Data obtained in the present study pointed out that lacidipine
antagonized KCI, norepinephrine and angiotensin II induced contractions
in isolated rabbit aortic strip and produced dose dependent reduction of
basal myocardial contractility of isolated rabbit heart. The negative
inotropic effect of lacidipine was found to be much less than that of
nifedipine.
Atherosclerosis was experimentally induced in rabbits by
cholesterol feeding in a dose of (lOOmglkg) for 10 weeks. Over the same
period a group of cholesterol fed - rabbits were treated with lacidipine in
a dose of(1 mglkg). At the end ofthe 10 weeks, blood samples were taken
for determination of total cholesterol, LDL, HDC'and triglycerides levels.
The histological changes in the aorta were determined microscopically by
making sections stained with hematoxyline and eosin. |
