Mechanisms of the acute hypertensive effect of intra-arterial cadmium and mercury in anesthetized rats.

Abstract

Abstract The acute diastolic hypertension induced by 40 μg of intra-arterially injected cadmium in anesthetized rats was found to be associated with marked increase in cardiac output. There was also some increase in the resistance of large arteries when isolated hindquarters of rats were perfused with 1.6 × 10 −5 M cadmium ion. The apparently similar acute diastolic hypertension induced by 140 to 560 μg of mercuric ion was associated with no change in cardiac output; however, there was marked increase in arterial resistance when isolated hindquarters were perfused with 8 × 10 −6 M mercuric ion.