Dietary sodium chloride increases blood pressure in obese Zucker rats.

In the rat, elevated arterial pressure is not consistently associated with obesity. The purpose of this study was to compare measurements of blood pressure, cardiac output, and total peripheral resistance in obese and lean Zucker rats on different NaCl intakes. Obese and lean rats drank either water or isotonic NaCl for 18 days. Tail systolic blood pressures of saline-drinking obese rats were higher than all other groups (p less than 0.05). NaCl intake did not affect blood pressure in lean rats, and blood pressures of water-drinking obese rats did not differ from those of lean controls. In a subsequent experiment, direct arterial pressures and cardiac outputs (thermodilution) were measured in separate groups of conscious rats that had been maintained on a 1% or 4% NaCl intake for 12 weeks. Arterial pressure was higher (p less than 0.01) in obese rats fed 4% NaCl (130 +/- 4 mm Hg) than in obese rats fed 1% NaCl (118 +/- 2 mm Hg) or than in lean rats fed either NaCl intake (118 +/- 3 mm Hg and 116 +/- 3 mm Hg, respectively). Cardiac output of obese rats was higher than that of lean rats (p less than 0.01); however, the NaCl-induced increase of blood pressure was accounted for by an increase of peripheral resistance (p less than 0.01). Thus, in contrast to the lean Zucker rat, arterial pressure of the obese Zucker rat is increased by a high dietary intake of NaCl.