[Responsiveness of cultured papillary collecting tubules to vasoactive hormones: comparison between spontaneously hypertensive rats and Wistar-Kyoto rats].

To investigate whether altered renal medullary prostaglandin (PG) synthesis is involved in the development of hypertension in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), we compared the hormonal responsiveness of cultured renal papillary collecting tubule (RPCT) cells from SHR and Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY) as control. Basal levels of PGE2 and cAMP were lower in 4-weeks-old SHR than in WKY, while PGE2 synthesis after stimulation with arachidonate, A23187 or bradykinin and the level of cAMP responded to vasopressin or exogenous PGE2 were similar in both strains. There was no difference in basal nor stimulated levels of cGMP between both strains. In 16-week-old rats, basal levels of cAMP, cGMP and PGE2 were significantly lower than in 4-week-old rats, but no differences were recognized between both strains. These results suggest that RPCT cells of SHR and WKY at the post-weaning period may differ in the metabolism of PGE2 and cAMP. This difference may be attributed to the possible defect in arachidonate availability in SHR.