High blood pressure of hypertriglyceridaemic rats is related to metabolic disturbances

A set of 131 F2 hybrids, obtained from a cross between normotensive Lewis and hypertensive hypertriglyceridaemic (HTG) rats, was studied in order to assess the relationship between blood pressure, plasma triglycerides and plasma uric acid. In progenitors, the plasma levels of triglycerides and uric acid were twice as high in HTG rats than in the Lewis rats. It was observed in the F2 cohort that high mean arterial pressure (MAP) was unrelated to body weight and relative heart or kidney weights. On the other hand, there were significant correlations between MAP and plasma triglycerides (r = 0.420, n = 131, p < 0.0001) and between MAP and plasma uric acid (r = 0.325, p < 0.001). Plasma triglycerides of F2 hybrids were below the midparental values, suggesting a stronger influence of normotensive Lewis alleles. In conclusion, hypertension in hypertriglyceridaemic rats strongly cosegregated with plasma triglycerides and plasma uric acid. Our results indicated a linkage between high blood pressure and several metabolic alterations characteristic for the X syndrome.