Experimental Arterial Hypertension and Pregnancy in Rats: Repercussion Regarding Body Weight Gain, Body Length and Organs of Offspring - Revista Brasileira de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia

Purpose: to study the repercussion of arterial hypertension regarding body weight gain and body length, as well as liver and brain weight of offspring. Methods: a total of 82 animals in reproductive age were used. They were randomly assigned to 4 different groups (control, handled, nephrectomized and hypertensive). Renal hypertension was produced by a controlled constriction of the main left renal artery and contralateral nephrectomy, according to the technique described by Goldblatt (Goldblatt I: one kidney – one clip hypertension). Afterwards, they were distributed among nonpregnant and pregnant groups. The following newborn groups resulted from the pregnant groups: RN-C (control-newborn group of pregnant rats without surgical treatment), RN-M (manipulation-newborn group of the pregnant rats with surgical manipulation), RN-N (nephrectomized-newborn group of pregnant rats with nephrectomy) and Rn-H (hypertensive-newborn group of pregnant rats with hypertension). Results: the RN-N and RN-H groups showed body weight gain ( = 3,64 ± 0,50; or = 3,37 ± 0,44), body length ( = 3,89 ± 0,36; or = 3,68 ± 0,32) and brain weight ( = 0,16 ± 0,01; or = 0,16 ± 0,05), respectively, smaller than the control group ( = 5,40 ± 0,51; or = 4,95 ± 0,23 and or = 0,22 ± 0,04, respectively). In addition, the RN-H group showed the lowest liver weight ( = 0,22 ± 0,03) compared with the other three groups. Conclusion: after statistical analysis, the results obtained showed that the arterial hypertension determined a reduction in body weight, body length, and liver and brain weight of the offspring.