Effects of sodium intake on inherited hypertension in the rat.

The effect of sodium chloride intake on systolic blood-pressure was studied in genetic hypertensive Wistar rats. In these animals hypertension can develop on a sodium-"free" diet, but the height to which the blood-pressure rises is related to the sodium intake; increasing the amount of potassium in the diet promotes sodium excretion and ameliorates the hypertension. It is suggested that this form of inherited hypertension may be determined by two different sets of autosomal alleles only one of which is sodium-dependent.