SALT-SENSITIVE HYPERTENSION - LESSONS FROM ANIMAL-MODELS

The underlying etiology of salt-sensitive hypertension has been elusiv e, in part because the term represents a syndrome rather than a specif ic disease entity and in part because of the difficulty in completely defining the characteristics of the syndrome, The introduction of inbr ed models of salt-sensitive hypertension has facilitated understanding blood pressure response to dietary salt Careful examination of one of these models, the Dahl/Rapp rat, has shown that the L-arginine:nitric acid (NO) pathway is integrally involved in production of hypertensio n in response to an increase in dietary salt. This review provides an overview of NO, salt sensitivity, and the role of NO in the pathogenes is of salt-sensitive hypertension. (C) 1996 by the National Kidney Fou ndation, Inc.