Central sympatholytic therapy has anti-inflammatory properties in hypertensive postmenopausal women

Objective Postmenopausal phase expresses many unfavourable physiological changes that lead to increased risk for cardiovascular disease. We compared the effect of two sympatholytic antihypertensive drug treatments, the centrally acting imidazoline receptor-1 agonist moxonidine and peripherally acting beta-blocking agent atenolol on sensitive inflammatory markers in overweight postmenopausal women with diastolic hypertension. Methods This was a multicentre, multinational double-blinded, prospective study comparing moxonidine (0.3 mg twice daily) with atenolol (50 mg once daily) in 87 hypertensive postmenopausal overweight women who were not taking hormone therapy. Sensitive C-reactive protein, IL-6, TNF alpha, TNF alpha-RII and adiponectin were determined in the beginning of the study and after 8 weeks of medical treatment. Results TNFa increased in atenolol and decreased in moxonidine group (P = 0.0004 between the groups). Adiponectin concentration decreased dramatically in atenonol but did not change in moxonidine treatment group (P < 0.0001 between the groups). In logistic regression analysis only treatment group showed an independent effect on changes in adiponectin and TNF alpha concentrations. Conclusion We believe that centrally acting sympatholytic postmenopausal women with hypertension by reducing inflammatory cytokine TNFa without changing protective adiponectin level. J Hypertens 26: 2445-2449 (C) 2008 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.