AJP - Heart and Circulatory Physiology, Vol 245, Issue 6 1081-H1084, Copyright © 1983 by American Physiological Society
Dietary sodium restriction and development of hypertension in spontaneously hypertensive rats
C. B. Toal and F. H. Leenen
Blood pressure and body weight of conscious spontaneously hypertensive
(SHR) and Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats were measured up to 16 wk of age in
animals started at birth on five different sodium-containing diets. SHR on
9 mumol sodium/g food did not show a rise in basal blood pressure; however,
when stressed the SHR still exhibited slightly higher blood pressures than
WKY. In SHR on 17 mumol sodium/g food the development of hypertension was
blunted compared with that of control (101 mumol/g) diet animals. SHR on 26
or 44 mumol sodium/g diet exhibited a development of hypertension similar
to that of SHR on control diet. The 26 mumol/g, 44 mumol/g, and control
sodium diet groups, regardless of strain, had similar growth rates. By
contrast, on 17 mumol sodium/g food both SHR and WKY showed a substantially
reduced growth rate, and all animals on 9 mumol sodium/g diet were severely
retarded in growth. The results indicate that dietary sodium restriction
can ameliorate the development of hypertension in SHR, but only when the
sodium levels are so low as to affect overall growth.
