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The purpose of this study was to determine if any changes occurred in the basal and stimulated rates of oxygen consumption and lactate production of thoracic aortas from spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and renal and deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA)-salt hypertensive rats, and, if so, whether these changes were similar in these three models of hypertension. Rings of thoracic aorta were placed in an isothermic (37 degrees C) muscle bath, and isometric tension development, oxygen consumption, and lactate production were measured. The results indicated that under basal conditions oxygen consumption, but not lactate production, was higher in aortas from all three hypertensive models; the elevation above control was greatest in the renal model (95%) and smallest in SHR (34%). On stimulation with 60 mM KCl, a significant increase in oxygen consumption above basal value occurred in all aorta samples (p less than 0.05); however, lactate production was increased above basal only in aortas from hypertensive animals. Only in aortas from renal and DOCA-salt models was the rate of oxygen consumption during stimulation significantly greater than that of their normotensive controls (p less than 0.05). Developed active stress in response to KCl was the same in all groups, and when the change in lactate production or oxygen consumption was expressed relative to the amount of active stress developed, no differences were observed. These results suggest that, 1) compared to values in aortas from normotensive animals, only the basal rate of oxygen consumption is higher; 2) this higher level of basal metabolic activity is not associated with an alteration in the metabolic cost of force development.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

The purpose of these experiments was to compare the contractile response to ACh of stomach fundal strips from hypertensive (SHR) and normotensive (WKY) rats during the development of hypertension. The results indicate that the reactivity to ACh is the same in fundal strips from young SHR and WKY rats; however, with maturation strips from WKY rats undergo a reduction in responsiveness which does not occur in the SHR. Therefore, strips from older SHR rats are more reactive to ACh than are those from age matched WKY rats.