Role of nitric oxide in the regulation of the long-term pressure
-natriuresis relationship in dahl rats.
Manning, Lufei Hu and R. Davis, Jr.
Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Mississippi
Medical Center, 2500 North State Street, Jackson, Mississippi 39216
-4505
APStracts 2:0028H, 1995.
The aim of this study was to determine the role of nitric oxide (NO)
in the development of salt-induced hypertension in the Brookhaven
strain of Dahl rats. Six to seven week-old conscious salt-sensitive
(S) and salt-resistant (R) rats with indwelling arterial and venous
catheters received low, normal and high sodium intakes sequentially
over a 16 day period, and L-arginine was infused i.v. at 2 or 4
mg/kg/min over this time. The S rats had an impaired NO production as
evidenced by a decreased urinary nitrate plus nitrite excretion. The
administration of the low or high dose of L-arginine increased the
whole body NO production of the S rats to that of the control R rats,
and the high dose of L-arginine prevented the shift of long-term
pressure-natriuresis relationship, the elevation of arterial pressure
and the increase in salt-sensitivity of arterial pressure in the S
rats. The sodium and water balances were not different between the
age-matched R and S rats. In conclusion, a continuous infusion of L
-arginine prevented both the changes in the pressure-natriuresis
relationship and the development of salt-induced hypertension in Dahl
S rats.
Received 27 October 1994; accepted in final form 23 January 1995.
APS Manuscript Number H955-4.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Heart Circ. Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1995 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 24 February 1995.