Cardiovascular habituation to emotional stress in Lyon hypertensive rats

1. Intra-aortic blood pressure was recorded continuously in freely moving genetically hypertensive (LH), normotensive (LN) and low blood pressure (LL) rats of the Lyon strain during two 11 h periods (08:00-19:00 h). During the first period (control), the animals were left undisturbed and during the second period (stress), a jet of air was applied for 20 min every hour. Urine was collected simultaneously and analysed for its content in norepinephrine and epinephrine. 2. The first exposure to the stressor induced larger increases in blood pressure and heart rate in LH than in LN and LL rats. However blood pressure and heart rate responses to the 10 following stressors decreased in LH rats while they remained stable in LN and LL animals. 3. Repeated stress exposure induced significant increases in epinephrine excretion in both LN and LL but not in LH rats. 4. It is concluded that LH rats exhibit marked cardiovascular habituation to repeated stress. Taken together with the lack of stress-induced sympathoadrenal activation, this suggests a reduced level of emotional responsiveness in Lyon hypertensive rats.