Blood pressure response to daily stress provides clues for better hypertension...(re normal. We also found out that endot...)

Now they want to know the specific sources of the reactive oxygen species. Earlier work by Dr. Frank Treiber, MCG vice president for research and principal investigator on the original Program Project grant in 2002, has shown increased blood pressure reactivity in children who are obese and/or have low socioeconomic status.

Looking at how obesity weighs in, Dr. Jennifer Pollock also is putting the rats on high-fat diets. It's known these rats become hypertensive on a high-salt or high-fat diet and they've found that, as with people, fat also increases blood pressure reactivity. Now she is going to find out how.

Another animal model is providing insight into the impact of early life stressors or low socioeconomic status on cardiovascular disease. Research again found that, as with people, these animals have normal blood pressure as pups. But as stressed adult rats, they have higher pressure increases and a delayed recovery unless they are missing an endothelin receptor gene. "It cures it," says Dr. Jennifer Pollock. "This early life stressor is being mediated through the endothelin pathway." Her postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Analia Loria, found these early life stressor models also have more constrictive blood vessels because they are more sensitive to angiotensin. New studies will further test the endothelin connection and see if a high-fat diet makes things worse by increasing oxidative stress.

Wildlife biologists have found naturally occurring models. Rat pups whose mother builds a nest far from a food source and so must be gone foraging several hours each day, are more anxious. Neurobiologists have shown animals separated fr
'/>"/>