Effect of dopamine and dopamine-antagonist infusion on blood platelet count, size and release reaction in hypertensive and normotensive subjects

Depression and Cardiovascular Disease: The Viewpoint of Platelets

Depression is a major cause of morbidity and low quality of life among patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD), and it is now considered as an independent risk factor for major adverse cardiovascular events. Increasing evidence indicates not only that depression worsens the prognosis of cardiac events, but also that a cross-vulnerability between the two conditions occurs. Among the several mechanisms proposed to explain this interplay, platelet activation is the more attractive, seeing platelets as potential mirror of the brain function. In this review, we dissected the mechanisms linking depression and CVD highlighting the critical role of platelet behavior during depression as trigger of cardiovascular complication. In particular, we will discuss the relationship between depression and molecules involved in the CVD (e.g., catecholamines, adipokines, lipids, reactive oxygen species, and chemokines), emphasizing their impact on platelet activation and related mechanisms.

Vasoactive drugs inhibit oxygen radical production of neutrophils

A concentration response study was performed to clarify whether vasoactive drugs, routinely used in intensive care patients, inhibit oxygen radical production of neutrophils. Moreover, in a cell-free system, it was investigated whether these drugs exert free radical scavenging properties. Vasoactive agents were incubated with neutrophils from healthy human volunteers, which were stimulated by N-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (FMLP) and by opsonized zymosan to produce oxygen radicals, detected by chemiluminescence measurements. Sympathomimetics (epinephrine greater than norepinephrine, dopamine and dobutamine) as well as phosphodiesterase-inhibitors (amrinone and enoximone) inhibited FMLP-induced and zymosan-induced oxygen radical production of neutrophils in a concentration-dependent and drug-specific fashion. With the exception of amrinone, FMLP-induced chemiluminescence of neutrophils was impaired nearly 10-fold more markedly than zymosan-induced chemiluminescence. Glyceryl trinitrate, nifedipine and prostacyclin had no effect on oxygen radical production of neutrophils. In the cell-free system, epinephrine, norepinephrine, dopamine, amrinone and enoximone demonstrated oxygen free radical scavenging properties. This study shows that vasoactive drugs, frequently used in the clinical setting, may suppress oxidative burst after FMLP-receptor stimulation. As demonstrated in the cell-free system, this suppression was, at least in part, due to oxygen radical scavenging.