The action of arterial hypertension on lipid and lipoprotein metabolism. I. Salt, adrenal-regeneration and renal (Goldblatt) hypertension.

The purpose of the investigation was to study the alterations in the lipid and lipoprotein content in the blood serum, the liver and the aortic wall of rats with experimentally induced salt, renal (Goldblatt) and adrenal-regeneration hypertension. The experiments were carried out on 59 Wistar rats (25 normotensive controls). It was established that both the serum and the liver lipid patterns vary in the three experimental models of hypertension. Thus, while in salt-induced hypertension no hyperlipidaemia and hyperlipoproteinaemia were established, in renal hypertension the serum lipid and lipoprotein levels were significantly increased in comparison to the controls. The cholesterol content in the liver was increased in all the three models of hypertension. The remaining lipid fractions were within normal ranges or a little decreased in salt-induced hypertension, while in renal and adrenal-regeneration hypertension their quantity was significantly increased. A two weeks' treatment with hypotensive prostaglandin E1 diminished the lipid and lipoprotein contents in the liver of rats with adrenal-regeneration hypertension, only cholesterol remaining unaltered. The blood serum level of free fatty acids increased in all the three models of experimental hypertension, as did the cholesterol and beta-lipoprotein level in the aortic wall. The alterations in lipid and lipoprotein metabolism established in this study are regarded as specific for the hypertensive process itself, since no histological alterations characteristic of atherosclerosis were observed.