Lymphocyte abnormalities in three types of hypertension in the rat.

Lymphocyte number and weight and their sodium and potassium contents and net passive fluxes were measured in spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rats, deoxycorticosterone acetate-treated rats, and two-kidney, one clip renal hypertensive rats. Wistar-Kyoto rats were used as controls for the spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rats, and normal intact Sprague-Dawley rats were used as controls for the others. Blood lymphocyte count was higher and lymphocyte weight was lower in the hypertensive rats. Intralymphocytic sodium content (millimoles per kilogram of dry weight) was elevated in the three forms of hypertension as compared with control values (spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rats, 43.0 +/- 1.7 vs Wistar-Kyoto rats, 37.3 +/- 1.3; deoxycorticosterone acetate-treated rats, 44.4 +/- 3.1 vs Sprague-Dawley rats, 36.1 +/- 1.7; one-kidney, one clip rats, 50.5 +/- 3.7 vs Sprague-Dawley rats, 38.9 +/- 2.0). Intralymphocytic potassium content was not significantly altered in any of the forms of hypertension. Lymphocytes from spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rats and deoxycorticosterone acetate-treated rats exhibited elevated net sodium fluxes (millimoles per kilogram of dry weight per hour) as compared with those of controls (spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rats, 7.00 +/- 0.99 vs Wistar-Kyoto rats, 4.89 +/- 0.63; deoxycorticosterone acetate-treated rats, 7.58 +/- 0.97 vs Sprague-Dawley rats, 5.6 +/- 0.64). Net potassium fluxes were significantly elevated only in the spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rats (14.07 +/- 1.70 vs 8.23 +/- 1.04 in Wistar-Kyoto rats). Sodium and potassium fluxes in lymphocytes from two-kidney, one clip rats and Sprague-Dawley rats were not significantly different.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)