title: Elevated blood pressure in spontaneously hypertensive rats consuming a high sucrose diet is associated with elevated angiotensin II and is reversed by vanadium.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the changes in serum angiotensin II (Ang II) and endothelin-1 levels induced by vanadium treatment of sugar-fed rats in order to investigate the relationship between changes in blood pressure and Ang II and endothelin-1 levels.
  
  
  METHODS
  Male spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) were fed starch (control), sucrose, and sucrose plus vanadium compounds at various concentrations. The systolic blood pressure of the rats was estimated by tail-cuff plethysmography. Serum Ang II and endothelin-1 levels were measured by radioimmunoassay.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were increases in systolic blood pressure (by 8%) and in serum Ang II (by 20%) in sucrose-fed SHR compared with control. In sucrose plus vanadium-fed SHR, the lowering of the systolic blood pressure (by 11-16% of the sucrose-fed value) was accompanied by a significant decrease in Ang II levels (by 25-60% of the sucrose-fed value) and an increase in endothelin-1 level (by 61-76% of the sucrose-fed value).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  That Ang II levels are elevated in sucrose-induced hypertension and decreased after vanadium therapy suggests that the renin-angiotensin system plays a role in the induction of hypertension in this model. On the other hand, the elevation of endothelin-1 levels associated with a decreased systolic blood pressure might be secondary to vanadium stimulation of endothelial cells. The data suggest that endothelin-1 is not involved in sugar-induced elevations of the blood pressure.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, D.C. 20007, USA.
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: H G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Preuss
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Abernethy
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: S T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Jarrell
authors.forename: N S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Andrawis
mesh_terms: D000804:Angiotensin II / Q000097:blood*; D000818:Animals; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects; D001835:Body Weight; D019422:Dietary Sucrose / Q000494:pharmacology*; D019332:Endothelin-1 / Q000097:blood; D006973:Hypertension / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D051381:Rats; D011918:Rats, Inbred SHR; D014639:Vanadium / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D019422:Dietary Sucrose; D019332:Endothelin-1; D014639:Vanadium; D000804:Angiotensin II