Exaggerated natriuresis in the conscious spontaneously hypertensive rat.

In response to an acute saline load, many patients with essential hypertension exhibit an exaggerated natriuresis relative to normotensive controls. In the present study, the urinary responses of conscious,Okamoto-strain, spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), and Wistar-Kyoto strain normotensive rats (NTR) to an acute saline load were evaluated to determine if a similar exaggerated natruiresis exists in this form of hypertension. Twelve rats of each strain per group (12 weeks of age) were housed in metabolism cages for 1 week. Systolic blood pressures (tail cuff) were significantly different (206+/- 9 mm. Hg in SHR and 135 +/- 3 mm. Hg in NTR). After a 4-hour control urine collection, 6 ml. of 0.9 per cent sodium chloride were given by gavage. Urine was collected again for 2 hours. Control urinary excretions of sodium, potassium, and creatinine in SHR and NTR were 11.2 +/- 4.8 muEq per hour, 50.1 +/- 7.6 muEq per hour, and 39.9 +/- 5.5 mg. per hour in SHR, and 13.8 +/- 2.4 muEq per hour, 34.9 +/- 5.5 muEq per hour, and 37.5 +/- 7.1 mg. per hour in NTR, respectively. The respective control values for sodium, potassium, and creatinine excretion in the two groups were not significantly different. Following the saline load, sodium and creatinine excretion rates were significantly elevated in both groups of rats. However, the increase in sodium excretion in SHR (60.8 +/- 7.2 MUEq per hour) was more than double and significantly different from that of the NTR (26.6 +/- 3.7 muEq per hour). In contrast, the increments in creatinine excretion in the two groups of rats were not significantly different from each other. In the NTS, urinary potassium excretion was significantly elevated (59.0 +/- 7.9 muEq per hour) whereas in SHR it was not significantly altered (12.0 +/- 8.8 muEq per hour). The change in urinary creatinine excretion as an index of change in glomerular filtration rate suggests that the greater increase in sodium excretion by the SHR was the result of decreased fractional reabsorption of sodium and not the result of a greater increase in glomerular filtration rate. The exaggerated natriuretic response to salt loading in SHR resembles that in hypertensive man except that in SHR, a simultaneous kaliuretic response is absent.