Activity Methods for Cardiovascular System Diseases

This chapter provides a collection of methods generally used in experimental pharmacology to test compounds with different activities in the cardiovascular system. There are many models in vitro and in vivo and we have highlighted those used in the field of natural compounds research. For the in vitro procedures, the focus was on the inhibition of enzymes, such as an angiotensin-converting enzyme or nitric oxide synthase, which plays a pivotal role in maintaining vascular control and overall blood pressure. Moreover, test procedures on isolated vessels were also considered for compounds whose activity is exerted on specific targets expressed in the vasculature. Regarding the in vivo methods, heart failure and hypertension models were highlighted for their high incidence of overall deaths cause. In particular, we have analyzed models of heart failure in rats and mice, animals generally used in preclinical studies. In addition, it also evaluated useful models of hypertension involving mainly rats; however, in many cases, the procedure could be translated to different animal species.

Keywords: Cardiovascular system, Hypertension, Endothelium, Cardiac failure, Vascular function.