Renal endothelin ET(A)/ET(B) receptor imbalance differentiates salt-sensitive from salt-resistant spontaneous hypertension.

It is unclear why a subgroup of patients with essential hypertension develop salt-sensitive hypertension with progression of target organ damage over time. We evaluated the role of the renal endothelin (ET) system in the stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHRSP) model of salt-sensitive spontaneous hypertension (SS-SH) compared with the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) model of salt-resistant spontaneous hypertension (SR-SH). Both strains were studied after either sham-operation on a normal diet (Sham) or after unilateral nephrectomy and high NaCl loading (NX-NaCl) with 4% NaCl in diet for 6 weeks (n=10, respectively).