Effects of an angiotensin II receptor blocker on the impaired function of endothelial progenitor cells in patients with essential hypertension.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Losartan and Trichlormethiazide.

Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) induce neovascularization and repair vascular damage.

In this study, the researchers investigated basal EPC functions in normotensive control subjects and patients with essential hypertension and the effect of losartan on EPC function in hypertensive patients.

Who Took Part

The study group was 36 patients.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were middle-aged adults, both men and women.

Eighteen normotensive control subjects and 36 patients with essential hypertension who were undergoing treatment participated in the study.

Blood pressure, biological examination, and oxidative stress were evaluated in all subjects.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized and crossover study.

Because people in this Losartan study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Each person switched between Losartan and the comparison at some point, usually with a gap in between.

Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated and cultured to assay EPC colony formation.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Angiotensin II Type 1 Receptor Blockers, Antihypertensive Agents, Blood Pressure, Cell Proliferation, Cells, Cultured, Diuretics and Endothelial Cells.

Author keywords: angiotensin II receptor blocker, colony formation, endothelial progenitor cell, essential hypertension, human and hypertension.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and crossover study of Losartan and Trichlormethiazide in 36 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Results are reported in around 7 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2014 (American journal of hypertension), a journal based in United States.

More context: all human trials.