SENSITIVITY OF ARTERIAL VASCULAR BED TO P ROSTAGLANDIN-E(2) IN PATIENTS WITH ARTERIAL-HYPERTENSION AND RATS WITH HEREDITARY HYPERTENSION

Intraaortic administration of PGE2 was used for assessment of arterial sensitivity to PGE2 in 22 patients with essential hypertension, 5 pat ients with chronic glomerulonephritis and in 137 normotensive and spon taneously hypertensive rats and 20 normotensive cats. Patients with es sential hypertension had high sensitivity to PGE2. This was evidenced by low threshold dose of PGE2 (36.8 ng/rg/min) and dose dependent bloo d pressure reaction to PGE2 administration. Sensitivity of arterial va scular bed was lower in patients with duration of hypertension exceedi ng 10 years compared to patients with history of hypertension less tha n 10 years. Spontaneously hypertensive rets were also highly sensitive to PGE2. They had low threshold dose (72.5 ng/kg/min) and dose depend ent blood pressure decrease to PGE2. Normotensive rats and cats had lo w sensitivity to PGE2. The threshold PGE2 dose was high (377 ng/kg/min ) and hypotensive reaction to PGE2 was tachyphylaxic. Duration of PGE induced blood pressure decrease in experimental animals was 10-20 fold longer than in patients with hypertension.