**4.3 ARB and cardiomyocyte apoptosis**

Inappropriate apoptosis contributes to the pathogenesis of a number of cardiac diseases and is recognized as an important factor in cardiovascular remodeling. AT1 mediated cardiomyocyte apoptosis is due to the pathologic involvement of RAS where ARB can block the actions of Ang II on AT1 thereby preventing the cellular apoptosis in the myocardium. There were several reports indicating the myocardial apoptosis in the EAM rats and ARBs can effectively prevent it due to their action on RAS. For instance, ARB can block the endoplamic reticulum stress and caspase12 activation in the EAM rats thus prevents cardiomyocyte apoptosis (Singh et al., 2008; Tsutsui et al., 2007; Ye et al., 2010; Matsusaka et al., 2006) (Figure 1).
