Beneficial effects of losartan on vascular injury induced by advanced glycosylation end products and their receptors in spontaneous hypertension rats

This study was designed to explore the role of losartan, an angiotensin II receptor blocker, in hypertensive injuries of blood vessels and the potential mechanisms related to the vascular advanced glycosylation end product (AGE)/receptor (RAGE) system, oxidative stress and endothelial proinflammatory factors. Spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) were employed for our study, and age-matched Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY) were used for control experiments. After losartan treatment for 12 weeks, we observed by immunofluorescence that the vascular AGE level in the losartan group was significantly lower than that of the SHR group and that the vascular mRNA expression of RAGE, NF-kappa B, NADPH oxidase p47phox and ET-1, as detected by RT-PCR, was significantly lower in losartan group than in the SHR group. Meanwhile, we found that the expression of RAGE and NF-kappa B proteins in the losartan group and the WKY group was remarkably lower than that of the SHR group. Compared with the SHR group, the activities of plasma superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX) and the NO level were robustly increased, while the plasma malondialdehyde (MDA) and ET-1 were substantially reduced. These findings suggest that losartan decreases the vascular AGE level, suppresses RAGE and NF-kappa B activation, and enhances the antioxidant capacity thereby improving the endothelial function, which induce hypertensive vascular remodeling.