Cardiac And Vascular Responses In Deoxycorticosterone Acetate‐Salt Hypertensive Rats

SUMMARY 1. Hypertension leads to ventricular hypertrophy and, eventually, to heart failure. The present study has investigated the functional consequences of deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA)‐salt hypertension in rats by defining the inotropic, chronotropic and vascular responses to noradrenaline (NA; β 1 ‐adrenoceptor agonist), forskolin (adenylate cyclase activator) and theophylline (phosphodiesterase inhibitor). 2. Administration of DOCA (25 mg, s.c., every 4th day) and excess salt (1% NaCl in drinking water) to uninephrectomized rats increased left ventricular wet weight by 35 and 71% after 4 and 8 weeks, respectively. Addition of KCl (0.4%) or CaCl 2 (1%) in the drinking water for 4 weeks attenuated blood pressure increases, but not ventricular weight increases (46 and 28%, respectively). 3. Positive inotropic responses in papillary muscles from uninephrectomized rats to NA (–log EC 50 6.73±0.38; n = 7), forskolin (–log EC 50 6.15±0.31; n = 7) and CaCl 2 (–log EC 50 2.40±0.02; n = 14) were unchanged in hypertrophied left ventricles of DOCA and DOCA‐CaCl 2 rats, although maximal responses to NA were decreased in DOCA‐KCl rats (1.2±0.6 mN, n = 8; DOCA‐salt 2.9±0.5 mN, n = 6); theophylline was less potent in DOCA‐salt rats. Positive chronotropic responses to NA, forskolin and theophylline in right atria and negative inotropic responses to carbachol in papillary muscles were unchanged. 4. Maximal vasoconstrictor responses to NA in thoracic aortic rings were reduced in DOCA‐KCl rats to 2.4±0.9 mN ( n = 5), but were increased in DOCA‐CaCl 2 rats to 26.6±2.2 mN ( n = 7; DOCA‐salt 7.8±2.2 mN, n = 9). Vasorelaxant responses to forskolin and theophylline were unchanged. 5. These results show that cardiac responses are only minimally affected during the development of DOCA‐salt hypertension‐induced hypertrophy, despite the reported decreases in adenylate cyclase activity, in these rats. This is in contrast with the decreased responses reported in other rat models of cardiac hypertrophy and in the failing human heart. Thus, hypertrophy in hearts of DOCA‐salt hypertensive rats does not produce similar changes to the failing human heart.