Hypertension is one of the chronic side effects of dexamethasone (DEX) treatment; however, almost nothing is known about its acute effects. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the possible mechanisms involved in blood pressure control after acute or short-term DEX treatment in adult animals. Eighty Wistar rats were divided into four groups: C1 and C5, for rats treated with saline for 1 or 5 days, respectively; D1 and D5, for rats treated with DEX for 1 or 5 days, respectively (decadron, 1 mg/kg, i.p.). Heart rate was increased in DEX treatment, but arterial pressure and cardiac muscle mass were not altered. Only few and isolated changes on gene expression and protein level of renin-angiotensin system components were observed. Five days of DEX treatment, but not one day, determined an increase in sympathetic component of spectral analysis (+75.93%, P < .05) and a significant reduction of parasympathetic component (–18.02%, P < .05), which contributed to the autonomic imbalance to the heart (LF/HF, +863.69%). The results of this present study demonstrated, for the first time, that short-term exposure to DEX treatment impairs the autonomic balance to the heart before hypertension, which was independent of renin-angiotensin system.

高血压是地塞米松（DEX）治疗的慢性副作用之一；但是，对其急性影响几乎一无所知。因此，本研究的目的是研究成年动物急性或短期DEX治疗后与血压控制有关的可能机制。将80只Wistar大鼠分成四组：C1和C5，分别用盐水处理1天或5天的大鼠； C1和C5。D1和D5，分别用DEX治疗1天或5天的大鼠（十加仑，1 mg / kg，腹腔注射））。DEX治疗可使心率增加，但动脉压和心肌质量未改变。肾素-血管紧张素系统组分的基因表达和蛋白质水平仅观察到少量分离的变化。DEX治疗五天而不是一日，确定频谱分析中的交感成分增加（+ 75.93％，P  <.05）和副交感成分显着减少（–18.02％，P  <.05），这有助于导致心脏自主神经失调（LF / HF，+ 863.69％）。本研究的结果首次证明，短期暴露于DEX治疗会损害高血压前与心脏的自主神经平衡，这与肾素-血管紧张素系统无关。