[Characteristics of erythrocyte membrane permeability for potassium ions in rats with familial spontaneous hypertension].

The kinetics of 42K influx into the erythrocytes was studied in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) during the prehypertensive and early hypertensive stages (aged 10 weeks), as well as in Wistar and Sprague-Dawley rats of the same age. The SHR displayed a significantly slower enhancement of the activity in the erythrocytes than in the Wistar and Sprageu-Dawley rats, which indecates a higher level of passive permeability of the erythrocytic membrane for potassium ions and an enhanced turnover of this ion in the erythrocytes of SHR. The revealed changes are interpreted as a fragment of a larger defect in the membrane of SHR that determines the development of spontaneous hypertension.