Stimulation of Soluble Guanylate Cyclase by Riociguat prevents Tobacco smoke-induced Pulmonary Hypertension in mice

Rationale: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a severe cause of death worldwide. An estimated portion of 30–70% of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients also suffer from pulmonary hypertension (PH). Previous studies in PH show that stimulation of soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) with riociguat partially reversed PH. In further studies we demonstrated that the sGC stimulator riociguat prevented emphysema development in tobacco smoke-exposed mice. Against this background we here investigated whether PH occurring in a lung emphysema mouse model induced by tobacco smoke is also affected b…