Regional blood flows and resistances in conscious one-kidney, one-clip renovascular hypertensive rats

Three regional blood flows were measured in one-kidney, one-clip renovascular hypertensive (one-kidney hypertensive) rats with chronically implanted electromagnetic flow probe. One-kidney hypertensive rats showed about 30% greater superior mesenteric flow, about 20% greater hindquarter flow at the terminal aorta, and an almost unchanged renal flow at the clipped renal artery when compared with control rats, but the sum of the mean values of these three regional blood flows in one-kidney hypertensive rats was almost the same as that of control rats. One-kidney hypertensive rats had a higher peripheral resistance in all the investigated vascular areas. The increase in peripheral resistance of the renal area including the clipped and removed arteries was greater than that in peripheral resistance of the superior mesenteric area or hindquarter area. These findings suggest that the remaining renal area which failed to compensate for the flow deprived by uni-nephrectomy plays a role in the etiology of this kind of hypertension.