Arterial hypertrophy and pressor responsiveness during development of hypertension in spontaneously hypertensive rats

BACKGROUND: In contrast to studies in isolated blood vessels, results from whole-animal studies are ambiguous regarding differences in pressor responsiveness between spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats, possibly related to the measurement of blood pressure instead of total peripheral resistance (TPR) and to differences in compensatory mechanisms. OBJECTIVE AND DESIGN: We evaluated responses of blood pressure and …