CONSUMPTION OF ELECTROLYTES AND QUININE BY MOUSE STRAINS WITH DIFFERENT BLOOD PRESSURES

Daily fluid intakes were measured using two-bottle tests in female mic e of inbred strains with high (BPH/2), normal (BPN/3) or low (BPL/1) b lood pressure. The mice were offered a choice between water and differ ent concentrations of NaCl (37.5-600 mM), KCl (1-400 mM), CaCl2 (1-100 mM) and quinine hydrochloride (0.003-1.0 mM). Compared with the normo tensive strain, the hypertensive mice had higher water and total fluid intakes, and lower intakes of NaCl, KCI (only 200 mM) and quinine; th e hypotensive mice had higher intakes of KCl (only 10-50 mM) and lower intakes of CaCl2 and quinine. These data suggest that fluid and salt intake are not linearly related to blood pressure, but are independent ly determined in these strains. Certain concentrations of the salts we re preferred relative to water, which depended on mouse genotype: the BPN/3 and BPL/1 mice strongly preferred 37.5-150 mM NaCl, the BPL/1 mi ce preferred 10-100 mM KCI, and the BPN/3 mice preferred 1-10 mM CaCl2 . (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.