Abstract

Myocardial contractile function is often depressed in patients with diabetes mellitus. Vanadate is an essential trace element that has purportedly an insulin-like action and has been suggested as a therapeutic agent for the treatment of diabetes mellitus. The purpose of the present study was to compare the prophylactic efficacy of oral vanadate therapy (0.8 mg of sodium orthovanadate per milliliter drinking water) to that of insulin treatment (5 units/day s.c.) in terms of its ability to reduce or prevent the progressive cardiodepression that occurs in untreated diabetes mellitus. Diabetes was induced in male rats by i.v. streptozotocin injection (50 mg/kg). Diabetes rats were assigned randomly to one of three regimens for 8 weeks: untreated, insulin-treated or vanadate-treated. Noninjected rats served as controls. In vivo myocardial contractile function was measured under basal conditions and after i.v. norepinephrine infusions in ketamine-xylazine-anesthetized rats using a miniature catheter-tip pressure transducer inserted in the right carotid artery and advanced into the left ventricle. Vanadate and insulin treatment resulted in comparable increases in body weight and reductions in plasma glucose, which were improved relative to untreated diabetics. These findings suggest that vanadium may possess an insulin-like action. Basal in vivo myocardial contractile performance was depressed significantly in untreated diabetic rats as compared to control and insulin-treated diabetic rats. The contractile performance of vanadate-treated diabetic rats was in between untreated diabetic and control groups. In vivo myocardial reactivity to norepinephrine based on assessments of left intraventricular developed pressure, positive and negative dP/dt and delta dP/dt was depressed significantly in untreated diabetic rats.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)