Experimental cerebral ischemia in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR): Importance of degree of hypertension.

To study the relationship between the degree of hypertension and experimentally-induced cerebral ischemia, brain metabolites, including lactate, pyruvate and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) were determined one hour after bilateral carotid occlusion in 119 spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) with a variety of mean arterial pressures (MAP). Of these, 36 SHR were given antihypertensive agents for 10 weeks to reduce blood pressure prior to the experiment. There was a significant linear correlation between MAP before and either supratentorial lactate (r = 0.482, p less than 0.001) or the lactate/pyruvate ratio (r = 0.388, p less than 0.001) in the brain after carotid occlusion. An inverse correlation was observed between supratentorial lactate and either ATP (r = -0.627, p less than 0.001) or arterial PCO2 (r = -0.477, p less than 0.001) after carotid occlusion. The changes suggest that the animals with a higher MAP had a greater increase in ischemic metabolites with a decrease in ATP and a more pronounced hypocapnia after carotid occlusion. This hypocapnia is believed to be due to hyperventilation induced by cerebral ischemia. It is concluded that hypertensive rats are more susceptible to cerebral ischemia and the susceptibility is related to the degree of hypertension. By long-term lowering of the blood pressure prior to carotid occlusion, the ischemic changes are lessened in this experimental model.