Mechanical properties of porcine small coronary arteries in one-kidney, one-clip hypertension.

The purpose of this study was to analyse the mechanical properties of small coronary arteries from pigs with one-kidney, one-clip hypertension and normotensive control animals and to determine whether these could contribute to vascular structural changes observed in hypertension. Small coronary artery wall tension-internal circumference relationships were determined for coronary arteries mounted in a myograph and used to calculate incremental elastic modulus-stress relationships for arteries from normotensive and hypertensive pigs. Wall tension-internal circumference relationships were shifted to the left in arteries from hypertensive pigs, but the stress-strain and incremental elastic modulus-stress relationships were not influenced by the increased blood pressure load. These data indicate that small coronary arteries from hypertensive pigs are not less distensible than those from normotensive controls. Therefore the previously reported increased media thickness:lumen diameter ratios in coronary arteries in this model of hypertension are not a consequence of abnormal elastic properties and can be ascribed to a remodelling process.