Vascular lesions in the various substrains of spontaneously hypertensive rats and the effects of chronic salt ingestion.

Among different races, countries and districts there are definite differences in incidence of hypertensive vascular diseases, for example cerebral bleeding. Hereditary and dietary factors presumably play significant roles. Experimental studies under controlled conditions and utilizint suitable animals are indispensable for analysis of the related factors. For confirmation, hypertensive vascular changes in the spontaneously hypertensive rats were histopathologically studied and related to the difference of substrains. Dietary effects of sodium chloride on these vascular changes were investigated by providing the animals with 1% saline for drinking.