Vascular and cardiac overexpression of endothelin-1 gene in one-kidney, one clip Goldblatt hypertensive rats but only in the late phase of two-kidney one clip Goldblatt hypertension

Abstract

Because one-kidney, one clip hypertensive rats presented severe vascular hypertrophy whereas two-kidney, one clip hypertensive rats only did so in the late phase of hypertension, these results lend further support to there being a relationship between vascular hypertrophy and endothelin-1 vascular overexpression in experimental models of hypertension. They also demonstrate that enhancement of the expression of endothelin-1 gene in blood vessels and in the heart of hypertensive rats may occur in the absence of exposure to DOCA and salt, and that endothelin-1 gene overexpression in experimental hypertension occurs early in non-renin-dependent, volume-expanded models such as the one-kidney, one clip or the DOCA-salt hypertensive rat, but only in the progressively non-renin-dependent late phase of the initially renin-dependent volume-contracted two-kidney, one clip hypertensive rat.