Abstract
To investigate the effect of blood pressure itself on lipid accumulation in the aortic wall, we have studied the effect of "short-term" (about 2 weeks) hypertension on the uptake of cholesterol-4-C14 by the aortic wall in normo-cholesterolemic female rats. Renal hypertension was produced by partial constriction of a left renal artery. The uptake of C14-cholesterol by the aortic wall of the rat was expressed in terms of the total and the specific activity of cholesterol and the ratio of the total activity of cholesterol in the aortic wall to the specific activity of cholesterol in the serum. The results indicate that cholesterol uptake by the aortic wall was not accelerated by the existence of hypertension. These results are discussed with respect to the effect of hypertension itself on atherogenesis.
