Altered cardiac beta-adrenoreceptors in spontaneously hypertensive rats receiving salt excess

1. Altered adrenergic responsiveness of hearts and blood vessels occurs in both experimental and clinical hypertension. 2. Since salt excess aggravates both types of hypertension, we investigated beta-adrenoreceptor properties in the hearts of spontaneously hypertensive and normotensive rats drinking 1% NaCl or tap water for 3 weeks. 3. Sodium loading increased heart weight in both spontaneously hypertensive and normotensive rats. 4. In spontaneously hypertensive rats excess salt attenuated the age-related decrease in beta-adrenoreceptor number observed in spontaneously hypertensive and normotensive rats drinking tap water and in normotensive rats drinking 1% NaCl. 5. Unlike the normotensive rats, which did not show a relationship between beta-adrenoreceptor number and blood pressure, spontaneously hypertensive rats on tap water and 1% NaCl showed a significant negative logarithmic relationship between these two variables. These data provide further evidence implicating sodium excess as an aggravating factor in this model of experimental hypertension.