Glycyrrhetinic acid reverses the lipopolysaccharide-induced hypocontractility to noradrenaline in rat aorta: Implications to septic shock

Septic shock and associated vascular hyporeactivity to vasoconstrictor agonists remain a major problem of critical care medicine. here we report that glycyrrhetinic acid (ga),the active component of licorice,effectively restores vascular contractility in the model of lipo-polysaccharide (lps)-treated rat aorta. ga was as effective as the no synthase inhibitor ng-nitroarginine methylester. ga did not affect the vascular no levels (measured by epr spin trapping) and relaxations to l-arginine in lps-treated rings as well as relaxation to s-nitroso-n-acetylpenicillamine in control rings. thus,ga may represent an interesting alternative to no synthase inhibitors in sepsis-associated vascular dysfunction. © the japanese pharmacological society.