The influence of cyclo-oxygenase inhibitors on the cardiovascular effects of hydralazine in rats.

In order to explore the postulated role of prostaglandins in the vasodilator effects of hydralazine, blood pressure and heart rate responses to the drug were determined in anesthetized and conscious rats with and without pretreatment with indomethacin or aspirin. Changes in rectal temperature were also measured. In control animals, hydralazine produced an almost immediate fall in blood pressure and a slowly developing tachycardia which bore no temporal relation with the hypotension. These effects were accompanied by a moderate increase in temperature. Pretreatment with the cyclo-oxygenase inhibitors did not reduce the blood pressure response, but completely blocked and in some cases reversed the tachycardia. The hyperthermic response was also reversed. These results can be taken as evidence for a role of prostaglandins in the tachycardia and hyperthermia, but not in the hypotension elicited by hydralazine in rats. In the absence of direct measurements of prostaglandin synthesis and release, however, no firm support for this possibility is offered by the present findings and alternative explanations are considered.