Blood pressure-independent hypotrophy of the heart, kidneys and conduit arteries after 7-nitroindazole administration to Wistar rats from the prenatal period to adulthood.

The aim of this study was to investigate the long-term effects of 7-nitroindazole on the heart, kidneys, thoracic aorta, and carotid arteries from the progeny of mothers that had been treated with 7-nitroindazole (7NI) (10 mg/kg/day in drinking water) during gestation and nursing. The offspring were also treated with 7NI (10 mg/kg/day in drinking water) until 10 weeks of age. Mean arterial pressure (BP) was measured by tail-cuff plethysmography starting at 4 weeks of age. After perfusion fixation with glutaraldehyde at 120 mmHg, the heart and kidneys were weighed and the thoracic aorta and carotid arteries were processed for morphological investigation. The BP and body weight of treated rats did not differ from age-matched control rats during the course of the experiment. In the experimental group, at the end of the experiment, the heart weight/body weight and kidney weight/body weight ratios were decreased. In addition, the wall thickness (intima + media), cross sectional area (intima + media), and wall thickness/inner diameter ratio were significantly decreased in both the thoracic aorta and carotid arteries without a change in the inner vessel diameter. Circumferential wall tension was increased in both arteries. The data clearly indicate that long-term inhibition of neuronal nitric oxide (NO) synthase with the specific inhibitor 7NI evokes BP-independent hypotrophy of the heart, kidneys, and conduit arterial walls in normotensive Wistar rats.