Direct renin inhibitor therapy and swimming training: hemodynamic and cardiac effects in hypertensive and normotensive rats.

Purpose: This study aimed to analyze the hemodynamic and cardiac effects of direct renin inhibitor (DRI) treatment and swimming training in hypertensive rats. Methods: Seventy-seven rats were divide into eight groups: sedentary normotensive (SN), trained normotensive (TN), sedentary normotensive treated with DRI (SN_DRI), trained normotensive treated with DRI (TN_DRI), sedentary hypertensive (SH), trained hypertensive (TH), sedentary hypertensive treated with DRI (SH_DRI), trained hypertensive treated with DRI (TH_DRI). Swimming training occurred for up to 60 min, five times a week for four weeks. The hypertensive animals were treated with 20 mg.kg(-1).day(-1) L-NAME for four weeks. Groups treated with DRI received 10 mg.kg(-1).day(-1) of aliskiren for four weeks. After the treatment period, all the animals underwent femoral artery catheterization surgery for direct measurement of cardiovascular variables. Results: The SH group presented hypertension (136.4 +/- 5.0 mmHg) compared to the SN (107.1 +/- 1.7 mmHg). The TH group showed lower mean arterial pressure (MAP) than the SH (121.1 +/- 1.3 mmHg), but the treatment with DRI did not attenuate hypertension (128.2 +/- 4.9 mmHg). The analysis of collagen areas demonstrated that treatment with DRI may attenuate cardiac remodeling in situations of hypertension, in the condition of treatment alone or combined with physical training. Conclusion: Both interventions in combination may be more effective at reducing cardiovascular risk in hypertensive subjects.