Ratsve i by injections of angiotensin developed a chronic hypertensive condition after the injections ceased. This suggests that chronic hypertension of renal origin is sustained by a mechanism other than the renin-angiotensin system, two Cleveland investigators report.
A professor of pathology, Simon Koletsky, MD, and his co-workers at Western Reserve University report that temporary infusions of angiotensin in rats followed by withdrawal led to chronic hypertensive vascular disease. This condition apparently simulated experimental chronic renal hypertension.
Dr. Koletsky and Jose M. Rivera-Velez conducted the experiments in two groups of test animals and one group of controls.
Six rats received infusions of synthetic angiotensin for eight to ten hours per day for five consecutive days. Blood pressure was raised to hypertensive levels which persisted only during the infusion of the vasopressor.
All of these rats developed acute hypertension together with diffuse thickening of arterioles and fibrinoid necrosis and polyarteritis.
"These results