Effect of angiotensin-induced hypertension on rat coronary arteries and myocardium.

Acute hypertension has been produced in rats by the intravenous infusion of angiotensin amide for 4 hours. Both control and hypertensive animals were injected intravenously prior to sacrifice with either horseradish peroxidase (HRP) or colloidal carbon. Epicardial arteries and blocks of ventricular myocardium containing intramyocardial arteries and arterioles have been processed for electron microscopy. HRP appears to penetrate the endoethelium of epicardial arteries from control animals within vesicles that bypass endothelial junctions and empty into interendoethelial clefts. Peroxidase does not traverse the endothelium of intramural arteries and arterioles of controls over the 10-minute period of observation. There is acceleration of lateral vesicular transport in the endothelium of epicardial arteries after angiotensin infusion and direct permeation of interendothelial clefts of intramural arterial vessels. Medial fragmentation and more extensive necrosis are observed in intramyocardial but not in epicardial arterial vessels. Foci of myocardial damage resembling irreversible ischemic or anoxic injury followed by reflow are described. It is suggested that the increased permeability of epicardial arteries may be due to elevated pressure, while the altered permeability and vascular lesions of intramural arteries and arterioles are more readily attributable to the vasoconstriction produced by angiotension. The vascular and myocardial lesions are also discussed in relation to the regional actions of angiotensin on the coronary circulation and known effects of this vasoactive peptide on myocardium.