Smoking and interleukin-6 (IL-6) are major factors in inflammation. The aim of this study was to investigate whether or not the IL6 −634C/G polymorphism (rs1800796) and its interaction with smoking influence serum C-reactive protein (CRP) concentrations. The subjects were 347 Japanese male employees of a transit company. CRP and conventional cardiovascular risk factors were...
The ankle-brachial index (ABI) is a non-invasive, reliable measurement of lower-extremity ischemia. A low ABI is associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease, stroke and death. However, the relationship between ABI and all-cause mortality or cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality in patients with metabolic syndrome (MetS) has not been well studied. Accordingly, we...
Circulating monocytes from hypertensive patients show elevated secretion patterns of pro-inflammatory cytokines, an increased expression of adhesion molecules, and an increased adhesion to vascular endothelial cells. We tested the hypothesis that telmisartan, an angiotensin II type 1 (AT1) receptor antagonist, reduces the activation of circulating monocytes from hypertensive...
Coronary endothelial function is impaired in hypertension; however, the severity of this impairment varies among patients. We aimed to identify the predictors of coronary endothelial dysfunction among clinical variables related to hypertension and atherosclerosis. Twenty-seven untreated, uncomplicated essential hypertensive patients and 10 age-matched healthy controls were...
Endothelin-1 (EDN1), a 21-amino acid peptide, is a potent vasoconstrictor with various pharmacological responses. EDN1 is synthesized from a 212-amino acid precursor protein, preproEDN1, through multiple proteolytic steps. Endothelin-converting enzyme (ECE) cleaves a Trp73−Val74 peptide bond in big-EDN1 to give rise to mature EDN1. In this study, we examined the possible...
Arterial hypertension (HTN) represents one of the major causes of atrial fibrillation, a cardiac arrhythmia with high prevalence and comorbidity. The aim of this study was to investigate whether paroxysmal atrial fibrillation can be treated by the regression of left ventricular hypertrophy achieved by antihypertensive therapy. Included in the present study were 104 patients who...
There have been few epidemiological studies on the gene-environmental interaction between the aldosterone synthase gene (CYP11B2) T−344C polymorphism and sodium in relation to blood pressure in a free-living general population. We hypothesized a priori that persons with the T allele of CYP11B2 would have elevated blood pressure levels in response to a higher sodium intake, and...
Accumulating evidence shows that deterioration of vascular endothelial function underlies the pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases following lifestyle-related diseases. Both Val-Pro-Pro (VPP) and Ile-Pro-Pro (IPP), which are tripeptides derived from proteolytic hydrolysate of milk casein, inhibit angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE), suggesting that both VPP and IPP may...
Masked hypertension is defined as a normal blood pressure (BP) in the clinic or office (<140/90 mmHg), but an elevated BP out of the clinic (ambulatory daytime BP or home BP>135/85 mmHg). It may occur in as many as 10% of the general population, and is important because it is not diagnosed by routine medical examinations, but carries an adverse prognosis, both in terms of...
The ankle-brachial blood pressure index (ABI) predicts cardiovasular disease. To our knowledge, no study has compared manual ABI measurements with an automated electronic oscillometric method in a population sample. We enrolled 946 residents (50.8% women; mean age, 43.5 years) from 8 villages in JingNing County, Zhejiang Province, P.R. China. We computed ABI as the ratio of ankle...
To explore the effects of various antihypertensive regimes on microalbuminuria, an angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB), valsartan, was substituted for or added to treatment with a calcium channel blocker (CCB). After a 6-month CCB baseline period, 28 Japanese hypertensive patients with incipient diabetic nephropathy (defined as a urinary albumin excretion [UAE] of 30–300 mg/g...
Hyperuricemia in hypertensive subjects has been considered one of risk factors of cardiovascular diseases. We investigated the status of uric acid management in 799 hypertensive subjects (432 females and 367 males; mean age 70.9 years) managed by 43 doctors (19 cardiologists and 24 noncardiologists; 25 private practice doctors and 18 hospital doctors). The serum uric acid level...
We investigated whether an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor could inhibit matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) activities in cerebral infarct lesions after middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in rats. After placebo or trandolapril (5 mg/kg per day) was administered orally for 7 days, we permanently occluded the right middle cerebral artery. ACE activity in extracts...
This observational study of Japanese men without metabolic syndrome (MetS) (age: 41±8 years) was conducted to clarify whether or not heart rate elevation precedes the development of full-blown MetS. MetS was defined based on two modifications of the criteria of the Japanese Expert Committee on the Diagnosis and Classification of Metabolic Syndrome. Premetabolic syndrome subjects...
Stiffening of large elastic arteries impairs the buffering function of the arterial system and contributes to cardiovascular disease. The aim of this study was to determine whether endothelium-derived nitric oxide (NO) modulates the stiffness of large elastic arteries in humans. Seven apparently healthy adults (60±3 years, 2 males and 5 females) underwent systemic α-adrenergic...
The effect of olmesartan, an inverse angiotensin II type 1 receptor blocker (ARB), on oxidative stress in hemodialysis (HD) patients is not fully understood, and has not been widely investigated in vitro or in vivo. We determined the amount of oxidized albumin and albumin hydroperoxides formed during incubation in the absence and presence of olmesartan by high-performance liquid...
The aim of the study was to assess the effects of the combination of metformin plus pioglitazone or rosiglitazone on glucose and blood pressure in type 2 diabetic patients with metabolic syndrome, as well as its tolerability in those patients. In this 12-month, multicentric, double-blind, randomized, controlled, parallel-group trial, all patients began with metformin. Patients...
This study determined whether or not oxidative stress and vascular dysfunction in fructose-induced hyperinsulinemic rats are associated with activation of the vascular renin-angiotensin system (RAS). Four groups of rats were used. CONT rats were fed normal rat chow, CONT+CAP were fed normal rat chow and given 500 mg/L captopril in their drinking water, fructose-fed rats (FFR...
Aortic pulse wave velocity (Ao-PWV) and ankle-brachial blood pressure index (ABPI) are significant prognostic factors in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Diabetes mellitus (DM) promotes changes in arterial walls, including marked increases in Ao-PWV and decreases in ABPI. To determine the prevalence of peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) as well as the...
Blockade of the renin-angiotensin system reduces cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in diabetic patients. Angiotensin II (Ang II) plays an important role in the structural and functional abnormalities of the diabetic heart. We investigated whether or not Ang II type 1 receptor blocker (ARB) could attenuate left ventricular (LV) remodeling in male mice with diabetes mellitus...
For hypertensive patients with renal diseases (RD), strict blood pressure (BP) control has been recommended in recent hypertension guidelines, such as JNC VI, JNC 7, WHO/ISH 1999 and ESH-ESC 2003. We assessed the current status of BP control and the changes of BP control before and after the publication of these guidelines in 489 hypertensive patients with or without RD (age, 19...
In this study, we investigated the effect of a specific chymase inhibitor, NK3201, in the progression of abdominal aortic aneurysm in a dog experimental model. Abdominal aortic aneurysms were induced in dogs by injecting elastase into the abdominal aorta. NK3201 (1 mg/kg per day, p.o.) or a placebo was started 3 days before elastase injection and continued for 8 weeks after the...