Abstract
Gastrodin is a bioactive compound extracted from traditional Chinese medicine, Gastrodia elata Bl. It has a definite effect on reducing blood pressure in hypertensive patients. However, the mechanisms of gastrodin in lowering blood pressure still remain unclear. In this study, 4 weeks of administration of gastrodin (100 mg/kg/d intraperitoneally injected) decreased the systolic blood pressure (SBP) in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) (190.2 ± 8.9 versus 169.8 ± 6.4, P < 0.01). Among SHRs receiving gastrodin treatment, angiotensin II (Ang II) and aldosterone (ALD) in serum were significantly decreased (2022.1 ± 53.0 versus 1528.7 ± 93.9, 213.33 ± 35.17 versus 179.65 ± 20.31, and P < 0.01, P < 0.05, resp.) and dramatically downregulated expression of angiotensin type 1 receptor (AT1R) (4.9 ± 0.9 versus 2.6 ± 0.9, P < 0.05) in myocardium in both mRNA and protein levels compared with their corresponding groups without gastrodin treatment. Additionally, gastrodin increased the mRNA expression (0.18 ± 0.07 versus 0.82 ± 0.10, P < 0.01) and protein synthesis (0.40 ± 0.10 versus 0.34 ± 0.10, P < 0.01) of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) in myocardium tissues. Overall, our data demonstrated that gastrodin was able to decrease the SBP in SHR. Furthermore, this study showed that gastrodin intervened with the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) and PPARγ effectively, which indicates its antihypertensive mechanism.