Divalent cations in hypertension with implications to heart disease: calcium, cadmium interactions.

Heart disease still pervades all socioeconomic classes within the United States. Understanding the effects of environmentally-related pathogenesis (e.g., heavy metal accumulation) may aid in developing novel treatments for the prevention of heart dysfunction. The aim of this report was to use experimental investigation in an attempt to expand upon the multivariate importance of divalent cation interactions in the development of heart disease. Calcium and cadmium levels were measured by flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry in various tissues derived from two types of hypertensive rabbit models. Both models of hypertension developed mean arterial pressures of at least 50 mm mercury greater than those of controls over a 5 week period. Interrelationships between calcium and cadmium levels were found to exist for both hypertensive groups in the left ventricle, aorta, and renal medulla. The renal cortex showed no such interrelationship for the renal hypertensive group. Multiple interrelationships between calcium and cadmium levels and hypertrophy were also observed. These studies related the importance of endogenous or exogenous (viz, environmental) factors governing cadmium and calcium accumulation in hypertensive rabbits. The resulting relationships between divalent cations and hypertrophy were presented to draw attention to areas which remain unexplored with perspective to cardiovascular disease.