Predisposition to hypertension in rat pups from renal hypertensive dams

We determined that a predisposition to hypertension could be transmitted by a nongenetic, renal hypertensive (HT) mother to her pups. The pups of one-kidney: one clip Goldblatt (1K:1C) hypertensive female rats and of sham operated normotensive female rats were subjected to the 1K:1C procedure at 28 days of age and tail cuff blood pressures (BP) were determined. After surgical induction of hypertension, HT male pups of HT dams had a significantly greater (p less than .05) BP by 14 days after surgery (194 +/- 8 mm Hg) than did HT male pups of normotensive (NT) dams (169 +/- 6 mm Hg). A similar trend (p less than .08) was observed for the HT female pups of HT dams (185 +/- 7 mm Hg) compared to HT females from NT dams (163 +/- 4 mm Hg). Thus, in utero exposure of pups to a chronic HT state alters the response of the pups to the surgical induction of hypertension. Furthermore, the results suggest that transfer of a predisposition to hypertension from mother to offspring occurred during the pregnancy/lactation period.