TUESDAY, Nov. 28 (HealthDay News) -- Soluble epoxide hydrolase inhibitors can prevent and reverse cardiac hypertrophy in mice as well as prevent cardiac arrhythmias, according to study findings published online Nov. 27 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition.
Bruce D. Hammock, Ph.D., of the University of California-Davis, and colleagues created thoracic aortic constrictions in mice to induce cardiac hypertrophy. The animals were then treated with either vehicle or one of two soluble epoxide hydrolase inhibitors for three weeks. The inhibitors increase the levels of epoxyeicosatrienoic acids, which inhibit the protein NF-kappa-B, the authors note.
The researchers found that the epoxide hydrolase inhibitors could both prevent cardiac hypertrophy and reverse established cardiac hypertrophy. The inhibitors also blocked the activation of NF-kappa-B in cardiac myocytes and prevented cardiac arrhythmias, according to the study.
"Our study has important clinical significance in providing evidence for an alternative strategy in the treatment of cardiac hypertrophy and the prevention of ventricular arrhythmias associated with cardiac hypertrophy," Hammock and colleagues conclude.
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