Effect of sinapic acid on heart rate, enzymatic antioxidants, cardiac and aortic lipids in l-name induced hypertensive rats

The present study was designed to evaluate the antihypertensive and antihyperlipidemic effect of sinapic acid (SA), a phenolic acid against Nω-nitro-L arginine methyl ester hydrochloride (L-NAME) induced hypertension in male Wistar rats. Hypertension was induced by oral administration of L-NAME (40 mg/kg body weight (bw)) in drinking water for 4 weeks. Rats were treated with SA (10, 20 and 40 mg/kg bw) for four weeks. L-NAME treated rats showed significant increase in heart rate and water intake. The activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) were decreased in erythrocytes of L-NAME rats. L-NAME rats showed significant increase in the levels of lipids such as total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), free fatty acids (FFA) and significant decrease in the level of phospholipids (PL) in heart and aorta. Histopathological examination of heart and aortic tissues confirmed the pathological changes induced by hypertension. Above pathological changes were considerably restored with the treatment of sinapic acid. These results suggest that SA acts as an antihypertensive and antihyperlipidemic agent against L-NAME induced hypertension.