[Effect of penicillamine and tetramethyl pyrazine on the hypoxic pulmonary hypertension in rats].

Penicillamine (P) and tetramethyl-pyrazine (T) were administered to treat experimentally hypoxic pulmonary hypertension in rats exposed to hypoxia of 380 torr for up to 21-days. The results of this study showed: Hypoxia increased RVP, the RV/LV + S ratio, the MT% and the MA%. P and T all prevented the hypoxia-induced increases in RVP, the RV/LV + S ratio, but the effect of T on the pulmonary artery remodeling induced by hypoxia was weaker than that of P. The MT% and the MA% were significantly lower in H/P group than in H group (P less than 0.01, P less than 0.05; respectively). Although the MT% was lower in H/T group than in hypoxia group (P less than 0.05), there was no statistical difference in the MA% between H/T group and H group (P greater than 0.05). The MT% and the MA% were significantly lower in H/PT group than in H group (P less than 0.01, P less than 0.01, respectively), and there was no statistical difference in MA% between H/PT group and N group (P greater than 0.05). It was concluded that P prevented primarily pulmonary artery remodeling induced by hypoxia and T inhibited mainly hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction response, so prevented partially hypoxic pulmonary hypertension and right ventricular hypertrophy.