Research Article

Age-Related Alterations in Endothelial Function of Femoral Artery in Young SHR and WKY Rats

Figure 3

Vascular responses to acetylcholine (ACh) in isolated femoral arteries of 7- and 22-week-old Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) before (full lines) and after (dashed lines) incubation with the nitric oxide (NO) synthase inhibitor -nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME, 300 μmol/L). Endothelium-dependent relaxations in the absence and presence of L-NAME of (a) 7-week-old WKY, (b) 7-week-old SHR, (c) 22-week-old WKY, and (d) 22-week-old SHR. Values represent mean ± SEM of 6–8 rats. SHR-7: 7-week-old SHR; SHR-22: 22-week-old SHR; WKY-7: 7-week-old WKY rats; WKY-22: 22-week-old WKY rats. Symbols have the following meanings: compared to the respective value before L-NAME; , compared to maximal relaxation at ACh concentrations 0.3 or 1 μmol/L (a, c, d)—significance indicating release of counterbalancing vasocontractile factors in hypertensive animals and in L-NAME-treated femoral arteries from juvenile WKY and juvenile and young adult SHR.
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