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NEUROHUMORAL CONTROL OF CARDIOVASCULAR FUNCTION

Sexual dimorphism in the renin-angiotensin system in aging spontaneously hypertensive rats

¹Department of Physiology and Biophysics and ²Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi

Submitted 12 July 2005 ; accepted in final form 7 March 2006

In young adult spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), mean arterial pressure (MAP) is higher in males than in females and inhibition of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) eliminates this sex difference. After cessation of estrous cycling in female SHR, MAP is similar to that in male SHR. The purpose of this study was to determine the role of the RAS in maintenance of hypertension in aging male and female SHR. At 16 mo of age, MAP was similar in male and female SHR (183 ± 5 vs. 193 ± 8 mmHg), and chronic losartan (40 mg·kg^–1·day^–1 po for 3 wk) reduced MAP by 52% (to 90 ± 8 mmHg, P < 0.05 vs. control) in males and 37% (to 123 ± 11 mmHg, P < 0.05 vs. control) in females (P < 0.05, females vs. males). The effect of losartan on angiotensin type 1 (AT₁) receptor blockade was similar: MAP responses to acute doses of ANG II (62.5–250 ng/kg) were blocked to a similar extent in losartan-treated males and females. F₂-isoprostane excretion was reduced with losartan more in males than in females. There were no sex differences in plasma renin activity, plasma angiotensinogen or ANG II, or renal expression of AT₁ receptors, angiotensin-converting enzyme, or renin. However, renal angiotensinogen mRNA and protein expression was higher in old males than females, whereas renal ANG II was higher in old females than males. The data show that, in aging SHR, when blood pressures are similar, there remains a sexual dimorphism in the response to AT₁ receptor antagonism, and the differences may involve sex differences in mechanisms responsible for oxidative stress with aging.

sex differences; angiotensin type 1 receptor; angiotensinogen; angiotensin II; oxidative stress

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