title: [Alterations in the level of calcitonin gene related peptide and endothelin-1 in the cirrhotic rat heart].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the role of calcitonin gene related peptide(CGRP) and endothelin-1 (ET-1) in cirrhotic cardiomyopathy (CCM).
  
  
  METHODS
  We measured the level of CGRP and ET-1 in the samples of rat heart collected from 15 liver cirrhosis rats and 15 controls by using radio immunoassay.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The data showed that the levels of CGRP (74.2130 +/- 10.3776 pg/mg protein) and ET-1 level (1.4780 +/- 0.9235 pg/mg protein) were significantly higher in the cirrhotic rat hearts than those in controls (P < 0.05). The increase of ET-1 in the cirrhotic rat hearts was closely associated with the severity of liver cirrhosis (P = 0.004); whereas no significant association was seen between the CGRP concentration and the severity of liver cirrhosis (P = 0.307).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We infer that the increasing of CGRP level in the cirrhotic rat heart may be a protective or antagonistic reaction to ET-1 or other pathogenic factors for cardiac dysfunction. The disturbance of the balance between CGRP and ET-1 in the liver cirrhosis rat hearts may contribute to the pathologic process of CCM.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, First Affiliated Hospital, WCUMS, Chengdu 610041, China.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Qiang
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015740:Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide / Q000032:analysis*; D009202:Cardiomyopathies / Q000378:metabolism*; D019332:Endothelin-1 / Q000032:analysis*; D008106:Liver Cirrhosis, Experimental / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D009206:Myocardium / Q000737:chemistry*; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D011897:Random Allocation; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
chemical_list: D019332:Endothelin-1; D015740:Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide