Cardiovascular actions of chicken-meat extract in normo- and hypertensive rats

The cardiovascular actions of a commercial chicken-meat extract known as Br and's Essence of Chicken (Cerebos Pacific Ltd, Singapore; BEC) were investi gated in normo- and hypertensive rats. The spontaneously-hypertensive rat ( SHR), Wistar Kyoto rat (WKY) and Sprague Dawley rat (SD) were used. The eff ect of oral feeding of BEC on hypertension, cardiac hypertrophy and arterio sclerosis in these animals was studied. The data showed the following effec ts of oral feeding of BEC: (1) feeding for 30 d did not affect the blood pr essure and heart rate (determined telemetrically) of adult SHR and WKY; (2) feeding for 90 d did not affect the development of hypertension in 1-month -old prehypertensive SHR; (3) feeding for 4 d dose-dependently (0.2-3.2 ml/ kg per d) attenuated cardiac hypertrophy in experimentally-induced (coarcta tion of the abdominal aorta) cardiac hypertrophic SD; (4) feeding to 1-mont h-old prehypertensive SHR for 11 months did not affect the age-related deve lopment of hypertension in this animal; (5) there was significant attenuati on of the age-related development of hypertension (determined by tail-cuff plethysmography) in the WKY (P=0.011) when the animals drank an average of 7.5 ml BEC/kg body weight per d, measured during the last 2 months of the 1 1-month treatment period; (6) there was chronic, as in the previous treatme nt, attenuation of the age-related development of cardiac hypertrophy and a rteriosclerosis (quantified morphometrically) in the SHR when the animals d rank an average of 2.4 ml BEC/kg per d, measured during the last 2 months o f the 11-month treatment period. A parallel study using laboratory-prepared chicken-meat and pork extracts showed that the former, but not the latter, attenuated cardiac hypertrophy in experimentally-induced cardiac hypertrop hic SD. These findings, showing that chicken-meat extract (both BEC and lab oratory prepared) could have anti-cardiac hypertrophic, anti-hypertensive a nd anti-arteriosclerotic actions, were unexpected and provoking, and would challenge nutritional scientists with an interest in meat consumption and c ardiovascular diseases.