EFFECT OF CAPTOPRIL ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF LEFT-VENTRICULAR HYPERTROPHY IN RABBITS WITH AORTIC-INSUFFICIENCY

We investigated the effect of captopril on the growth of the left vent ricle in an experimental model of aortic insufficiency. Four groups of rabbits were studied 28 days after experimental intervention: 1. cont rol, 2. control with captopril (10 mg/kg/day), 3. aortic insufficiency , 4. aortic insufficiency with captopril (10 mg/kg/day). Aortic insuff iciency induced hypertrophic growth of the left ventricle demonstrated by increased weight and ribonucleic acid (RNA) concentration. Adminis tration of captopril only slightly attenuated the weight increase of t he left ventricle and the increase in concentration of left ventricula r RNA. However, captopril reduced the concentration of left ventricula r deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) both in the control and even more in the group with aortic insufficiency. The chronic haemodynamic overload en hanced mitochondrial respiration in the left ventricle which was not i nfluenced by captopril. We conclude that captopril in the dose 10 mg/k g/day did not prevent hypertrophy of the left ventricle but reduced le ft ventricular DNA concentration.