Vascular relaxation in the spontaneously hypertensive rat.

The relaxation of thoracic and abdominal aortae of the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) during prehypertensive (3--5 week old) and hypertensive (12--16 and 22--25 week old) stages was compared to that of matched normotensive Wistar rats (NWRs). In the thoracic aorta, the relaxation response to isoproterenol, acetylcholine, Mg2+, Mn2+, Co2+, and La3+ was less in both prehypertensive and hypertensive SHRs than in the matched NWRs; however, such difference was not evident in the abdominal aorta. Similarly, the relaxing effect of nitroglycerin and papaverine was not different in the aorta preparations of the SHR and NWR. After chronic reserpine treatment of the prehypertensive and hypertensive SHRs, the thoracic aorta still showed less relaxation in response to the aforementioned agents. Isoproterenol, but not other agents tested, produced less relaxation in the thoracic aorta from the renal hypertensive rat than from the control. Our results suggest that the decreased relaxation of the SHR thoracic aorta is not a consequence of hypertension and that the defect in the SHR thoracic aorta cannot be generalized to other vascular beds.