Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
Volume 23, Issue 22, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/ijms232214489
Keywords
essential hypertension; oxidative stress; melatonin; total antioxidant capacity; peripheral arterial tonometry; pulse wave velocity; systolic and diastolic blood pressure; cardiovascular risk
Funding
- University of Brescia, Italy
- FLAMMA S.p.A.-Italy
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This study evaluated the endothelial damage and vascular stiffness in hypertensive patients and tested the effect of melatonin supplementation on these factors. The results showed that melatonin supplementation significantly improved arterial stiffness and slightly increased endothelial function. Additionally, melatonin supplementation was associated with a reduction in total antioxidant capacity levels and improvement in arterial stiffness.
Among cardiovascular diseases, hypertension is one of the main risk factors predisposing to fatal complications. Oxidative stress and chronic inflammation have been identified as potentially responsible for the development of endothelial damage and vascular stiffness, two of the primum movens of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. Based on these data, we conducted an open-label randomized study, first, to evaluate the endothelial damage and vascular stiffness in hypertense patients; second, to test the effect of supplementation with a physiological antioxidant (melatonin 1 mg/day for 1 year) in patients with essential hypertension vs. hypertensive controls. Twenty-three patients of either gender were enrolled and randomized 1:1 in two groups (control and supplemented group). The plasmatic total antioxidant capacity (as a marker of oxidative stress), blood pressure, arterial stiffness, and peripheral endothelial function were evaluated at the beginning of the study and after 1 year in both groups. Our results showed that arterial stiffness improved significantly (p = 0.022) in supplemented patients. The endothelial function increased too, even if not significantly (p = 0.688), after 1 year of melatonin administration. Moreover, the supplemented group showed a significative reduction in TAC levels (p = 0.041) correlated with the improvement of arterial stiffness. These data suggest that melatonin may play an important role in reducing the serum levels of TAC and, consequently, in improving arterial stiffness.
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