Effects of SQ 14.225, an orally active inhibitor of angiotensin-converting enzyme, on hypoxic pulmonary hypertension and right ventricular hypertrophy in rats.

Treatment with SQ 14.225, an inhibitor of the enzyme converting angiotensin I to angiotensin II and lowering of plasma renin activity by dietary salt overload, significantly decreased hypertrophy of the right ventricle in chronically hypoxic rats. The smaller degree of right ventricular hypertrophy registered in hypoxic rats with suppressed activity of the renin-angiotensin system was proportional to the decrease in hypoxic pulmonary hypertension noted in these animals. Lowering of pulmonary hypertension in chronically hypoxic rats by suppression of the renin-angiotensin system is consistent with the idea that angiotensin II may be involved in eliciting hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction. Inhibition of converting enzyme also lowered the systemic arterial pressure in hypoxic rats, but this finding could not be taken as evidence for the role of the renin-angiotensin system in homeostatic control of blood pressure in normal animals, since the plasma-renin activity in hypoxic rats is increased and the blood pressure higher than in rats kept under normoxic conditions.