Beneficial Effects of Growth Hormone and Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 in Experimental Heart Failure in Rats Treated with Chronic ACE Inhibition

The effects of growth hormone (GH) plus insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) were tested in an experimental model of cardiac failure treated with chronic angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibition. Myocardial infarction was induced in rats by left coronary artery ligation. Two weeks after ligation, the animals received either captopril (2 g/L in drinking water) or water for 3 months. The rats were then given either GH (2 mg/ kg/day) plus IGF-1 (2 mg/kg/day) or vehicle for 14 days. Captopril treatment decreased mean arterial pressure (MAP), left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP) and systemic vascular resistance (SVR) (p < 0.05), and increased cardiac index (CI) and stroke volume index (SVI) (p < 0.05). GH/IGF-1 or captopril + GH/IGF-1 treatment decreased MAP, LVEDP, and SVR (p < 0.05), and increased left ventricular maximum dP/dt, CI, and SVI (p < 0.05). The increases in CI and SVI were significantly greater in the captopril + GH/IGF-1-treated animals than in those treated with captopril alone (p < 0.05). The beneficial effect of captopril in reducing cardiac hypertrophy was preserved in the captopril + GH/IGF-1 group. The results indicate that GH/IGF-l and captopril can improve cardiac performance in congestive heart failure by independent and complementary mechanisms.