LEAD-INDUCED ELEVATION OF BLOOD-PRESSURE .1. SPONTANEOUSLY HYPERTENSIVE RATS

Forty-two male rats of the spontaneously hypertensive (SHR) strain wer e given pelleted food containing lead at a dose level of 0, 3, 30, or 300 mu g/g (0, 0.2, 2.3, and 22.5 mgPb/kg/day) over a period of 18 wee ks. The age-related increase in blood pressure was accelerated by lead at low dose levels of 3 and 30 mu g/g but suppressed by lead at a hig h dose level of 300 mu g/g in the spontaneously hypertensive rats. Our data also implied that blood pressure was increased by lead-induced a therosclerosis mainly in animals with spontaneously hypertensive hered ity, but not by renal dysfunction. (C) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.