Noradrenaline content and adrenergic receptors in kidney and heart of the prehypertensive and hypertensive Lyon rat strain.

Sympathetic activity modulates the blood pressure in part by activation of cardiac and renal adrenergic receptors. Thus an alteration of tissue noradrenaline content and/or adrenergic receptors in heart and kidney might be involved in the pathogenesis of hypertension. In order to verify this possibility, we studied tissue noradrenaline content and alpha and beta adrenergic receptors in the heart and kidney of Lyon hypertensive (LH), normotensive (LN), and low-pressure (LL) rats. Density and affinity of receptors were determined using the specific radioligands [3H]-prazosin (alpha 1), [3H]-rauwolscine (alpha 2), and [3H]-dihydroalprenolol (beta) in prehypertensive (5-week-old) and hypertensive (21-week-old) rats. In the prehypertensive period, no differences concerning renal and cardiac noradrenaline content and adrenergic receptor densities and affinities were observed. In the hypertensive period, an age-related decrease of renal alpha 1 and beta receptors was observed in LN and LL (P less than 0.01) but not in LH rats. Consequently, at this time, density of renal alpha 1 and beta receptors was higher in LH than in LN and LL (P less than 0.01). In contrast, the density and affinity of renal alpha 2 and cardiac alpha 1 and beta receptors and tissue noradrenaline content were similar in the three rat strains. Because renal alpha 1 and beta receptors mediate various functions involved in the control of blood pressure such as tubular sodium reabsorption, renin secretion, and glomerular filtration, the different density of these receptors in LH rats might be involved in the development or maintenance of hypertension.