835 Age-Related Changes in Vascular Function of Normotensive and Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats

Abstract

Ambulatory BP monitoring was carried out. The cardio-vascular risk factorsmale gender, age, smoking, BP and serum cholesterol levels -were taken into account. Subclinical heart and blood vessels damage signs were revealed. Their interrelations with vascular and chronologic age were evaluated and compared.Results Vascular age signifi cantly prevailed in men (59(49-69) and 53(44-60) years; p Ͻ 0.001) while the chronologic age was equal in men and women (51(45-46) and 50(45-55) years respectively; p ϭ 0.92). The vascular age correlated more closely than chronologic with left ventricular mass index (r ϭ ϩ 0.53), carotid intimae-media thickness (r ϭ ϩ 0.42), mean daily pulse pressure (r ϭ ϩ 0.36) and ankle-brachial index (r ϭ -0.20). The multiple regression analysis showed that the vascular age irrespective of chronologic one proved to be an independent predictor of left ventricular hypertrophy and carotid artery plaque.Conclusion Vascular age might be the useful tool for myocardial and vascular damage evaluation in hypertensive patients.Objective Spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) serves as an experimental model of human essential hypertension. However, the role of endothelium-derived relaxing and endothelium-derived constricting (ED-CFs) factors in the arteries of hypertensive rats remains controversial. This study investigated endothelial function in male, 7-and 22-week-old SHR and age-matched Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY). Design and MethodsBlood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) were determined by tail-cuff method. Acetylcholine (ACh)-induced nitric oxide (NO)-dependent and NO-independent components of vasorelaxation were determined in the femoral artery (FA) rings by wire myograph.