Dissociation of effects of dietary fatty acids on blood pressure and prostanoid metabolism in Goldblatt hypertensive rats.

To study the influence of dietary modification of prostaglandin synthesis on blood pressure regulation, the effects of dietary enrichment with linoleic acid were compared with standard rat chow in three groups of 24 rats before and after renal artery constriction and contralateral nephrectomy. Dietary supplementation with 40 energy% sunflower seed oil or linseed oil respectively caused incorporation of linoleic or linolenic acids into tissue phospholipids. Relative to the sunflower seed oil, the linseed oil diet led to inhibition of prostanoid synthesis in kidney, serum or aorta in vitro and urine in vivo. Rats on both oil-rich diets had lower blood pressures than rats on a standard diet. Thus, partial suppression of prostaglandin synthesis did not accelerate one-kidney, one clip Goldblatt hypertension, nor did sunflower oil protect against hypertension in a way that could be specifically ascribed to changes in prostaglandin synthesis.