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Maternal involvement in the development of cardiovascular phenotype

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Abstract

Over the past 20 years, laboratory studies of genetically defined animal models of human essential hypertension have provided valuable information on the pathophysiology of this disturbance in cardiovascular regulation. Relatively fewer studies have examined the impact of preweaning factors on the developing cardiovascular system of hypertensive animals. In our laboratory studies, we have utilized two inbred genetically hypertensive models: the spontaneously hypertensive (SHR) rat and its Wistar/Kyoto (WKY) normotensive control strain as well as the Dahl hypertension-sensitive (SS/Jr) and hypertension-resistant (SR/Jr) strains. To manipulate the preweaning maternal environment, we have employed the technique of reciprocal cross-fostering of litters between hypertensive and matched normotensive mothers. Our findings to date point to the maternal environment as a powerful influence on the development of high blood pressure in genetically hypertensive rats. In general, hypertensive rats reared by normotensive foster mothers have significant reductions in arterial blood pressure in adulthood. Thus, the progression of hypertinsive disease is not strictly predtermined by genotypic factors. Rather, a genetic predisposition to hypertension interacts with preweaning environmental factors to determine an animal's cardiovascular phenotype in adulthood.

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  1. M. A. Cierpial

    Present address: Department of Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center, 27710, Durham, North Carolina, USA

  2. C. A. Murphy

    Present address: Department of Developmental Psychobiology, New York State Psychiatric Institute, 722 North 168th Street, Box 40, 10032, New York, New York, USA

  3. J. H. Lee

    Present address: Department of Psychiatry, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 21205, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, 22903-2477, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA

    R. McCarty, M. A. Cierpial, C. A. Murphy, J. H. Lee & C. Fields-Okotcha

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McCarty, R., Cierpial, M.A., Murphy, C.A. et al. Maternal involvement in the development of cardiovascular phenotype. Experientia 48, 315–322 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01923425

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