RESUMO
BACKGROUND: The vasopeptidase inhibitor omapatrilat improves insulin sensitivity and survival following myocardial infarction (MI). It also improves left ventricular (LV) remodelling following MI and reduces MI size. OBJECTIVES: To determine whether improvement in LV remodelling and function is accompanied by a reduction in fetal gene expression of the contractile apparatus, and whether reduction in MI size is accompanied by an increase in the expression of the glucose transporter GLUT-4. METHODS: Eighty-nine rats were pretreated for seven days with omapatrilat 20 mg/kg/day and 91 rats were left untreated. MI was induced in 180 Zucker lean male rats by ligating the left anterior descending coronary artery, and omapatrilat was given for another 38 days in the survivors. After 30 days, echocardiography was performed. At 38 days, hemodynamic measurements were performed, the rats were sacrificed and morphological measurements were done. Using quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, gene expression was measured in the LV using transcript levels. RESULTS: Treatment with omapatrilat resulted in improved early (24 h) and late (38 days) survival following MI (50% to 67%, P=0.023, and 44% to 59%, P=0.045, respectively). Omapatrilat treatment reduced MI size and resulted in beneficial ventricular remodelling as reflected by a reduction in cardiac dimensions by echocardiography, and LV and right ventricular hypertrophy, which resulted in borderline hemodynamic improvement. A large MI resulted in an increased expression of beta-myosin heavy chain, alpha-skeletal actin and atrial natriuretic peptide, and a decreased expression of GLUT-4. Omapatrilat treatment did not modify the expression of these genes. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that the vasopeptidase inhibitor omapatrilat does not modify fetal gene expression of the contractile apparatus or the expression of GLUT-4 despite reducing cardiac hypertrophy and MI size.