[Hereditary resistance to salt-induced hypertension. What mechanisms?]

The Sabra hypertension resistant rats (SBN) have an outstanding ability to maintain normal blood pressure when exposed to procedures that ordinarily cause hypertension in normal rats. The following findings may be relevant to resistance to hypertension of these rats: 1) In SBN rats, cardiac norepinephrine content is not affected by DOCA-salt treatment. Since depletion of cardiac norepinephrine is an index of cardiac adrenergic nerve overactivity, the results suggest an attenuated cardiac sympathetic nerve activity in these rats. 2) In SBN rats, the sensitivity of the baroreflex control of the heart is markedly increased compared with other strains. Reduction of baro-receptor sensitivity by aortic-baroreceptor deafferentation renders them susceptible to DOCA-salt hypertension. The results suggest a strong relationship between baroreflex supersensitivity and resistance to hypertension in these rats. 3) The amount of alpha 2 adrenoreceptor densities in cerebral and renal cortical membranes of normal rats increased in vitro, in the presence of sodium and guanyl nucleotide (GTP). In SBN rats, the effect of sodium is markedly attenuated compared with SBH, while response to GTP is identical in the two strains. The demonstration of a similar pattern of response in the Dahl rats suggests that alpha 2 adrenoreceptor may be involved in the sensitivity or resistance to salt induced hypertension.