Effects of pentaerythrityl-tetranitrate and isosorbide-5-mononitrate in experimental atherosclerosis.

This study was performed to determine whether long-term treatment with organic nitrovasodilators exhibit pharmacological effects on the development of atherosclerotic lesions and endothelial dysfunction in the cholesterol fed rabbit. The major finding of this study is that PETN, but not ISMN, decreases the extent of aortic intimal lesions and the development of endothelial dysfunction. In addition, 15 weeks of feeding a diet enriched with either PETN or ISMN did not induce a measurable extent of vascular in-vitro tolerance to the vasodilator activity of these drugs.