The early ontogeny of sodium appetite in spontaneously hypertensive vs. normotensive rats
1Department of Veterinary and Comparative Anatomy, Pharmacology and Physiology College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University, Pullman 99164-6520.
Abstract:
Rats of various strains differ widely in their appetite for sodium. For example, the Okamoto-Aoki spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) exhibits a much greater salt appetite than its normotensive control strains. Developmental observations of salt appetite in this strain have been collected only for rats at or above weanling age. In this experiment, the salt appetite of the SHR was compared with that of normotensive Sprague-Dawley and Wistar-Kyoto rats, at 3, 6 and 12 days after birth. The results show that the increased salt appetite of the SHR is a fundamental behavioral trait that appears very early in life. This observation is consistent with a defective central angiotensin system in SHR rats.
