Renal hypertensive angiopathy. Comparison between chronic NO suppression and DOCA-salt intoxication

N G -nitro- l -arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) and 11-desoxycorticosterone plus salt intake (DOCAsalt) hypertensive rat models were compared to study the possible involvement of model-specific factors in the development of renal angiopathy and left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). Blood pressure was measured in L-NAME, DOCA-salt hypertensive, and control Wistar rats, and the lesions of nephroangiosclerosis and left ventricular hypertrophy were evaluated after 7 weeks. Arterial wall cyclic guanosine monophosphate, plasma renin activity (PRA), and renal renin storage were assessed in parallel. For the same level of hypertension in the two models, the renal arterial fibrinoid necrotic lesions were significantly more frequent in L-NAME than in DOCA-salt hypertensive rats. In DOCA-salt hypertensive rats, PRA was decreased and arterial cGMP increased compared to controls. In the L-NAME model, arterial cGMP decreased and PRA showed a bimodal distribution in this intermediate stage of hypertensive disease. LVH was observed in DOCA-salt rats and only in the L-NAME rats with a high level of PRA. There was a close correlation between the lesions of nephroangiosclerosis, left ventricular index, and plasma renin activity in L-NAME rats. We therefore suggest that the activation of the renin-angiotensin system participates specifically in the development of the second stage of hypertension during chronic blockade of NO synthase involving nephroangiosclerosis and LVH.