【 Modeling Mechanism 】 Spontaneous hypertensive rats are inbred Wistar rats cultivated by Okamoto and Aoki in 1963 and their control inbred Wistar Kyoto rats. The onset of hypertension in SHR rats is related to an increase in cardiac output. As hypertension progresses, cardiac output returns to normal, while total peripheral resistance increases. Long term can cause myocardial hypertrophy and congestive heart failure.
Stroke-prone neutral spontaneously hypertensive rats were inbred and bred from offspring of SHR rats that died naturally from stroke by Yamari et al. The first generation offspring of SHR hybridized with its negative control, known as borderline hypertensive rats, are a highly sensitive model to environmental factors related to hypertension. Salt sensitive rats are also a type of inbred line screening model. In addition, some obesity models are also considered spontaneous hypertension models.
【 Model characteristics 】 SHR (4-6 weeks old) spontaneously hypertensive without any physical, drug, surgical or other factors, but environmental factors affect the degree of hypertension. This model has strict requirements for temperature, sound, light and other feeding environments. SHR systolic blood pressure is usually above 160mmHg (21.33kPa). Around 13 weeks, myocardial cell hypertrophy occurs. After 24 weeks, left ventricular wall hypertrophy gradually worsens, with a significant increase in myocardial collagen content. In the future, worsening myocardial fibrosis and interstitial remodeling can cause cardiac dysfunction. The SHRsp model starts to increase blood pressure at 6 weeks and reaches its peak (230-250mm Hg) at 5-6 months of age. The average lifespan of males is 9 months, while females are 12 months. 80% of males and 60% of females experience stroke.
【 Model source 】 Currently, the commonly used SHR species are Kyoto species cultivated by Okamoto et al., and there are also SHR rats from various sources. SHR can be provided by institutions such as the Animal Experimental Center of Shanghai Hypertension Research Institute in China.
【 Model Evaluation and Application 】 SHR rats have a certain gap in the etiology of hypertension compared to human hypertension, but in many aspects, such as pathogenesis, cardiovascular complications of hypertension, changes in peripheral vascular resistance, and sensitivity to salt, they are similar to human hypertension patients. They are currently internationally recognized as the closest animal model to human primary hypertension and can be used for studying the pathogenesis of hypertension and complications, It is an ideal experimental animal model for screening or evaluating antihypertensive drugs.
The SHPsp model is a hypertension experimental model recommended by the Hypertension Rat Nomenclature Committee of the International Hypertension Association (11th International Hypertension Conference, August 1986). It is the only animal model that experimentally studies the prevention of hypertension induced cerebrovascular disease, and is the closest animal model to human stroke, with the widest application.