Genetic Analysis of Blood Pressure in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats

Spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), established now as an inbred strain, were used for the genetic study on hypertension. The genetic mechanism was analyzed from the blood pressure in SHR, several normotensive strains and their F1 F2 and backcross generations. The three series of experiments, one of which was independently done, gave similar results, which indicated a great importance of genetic factors and additive mode of inheritance, and further suggested on some assumptions a relatively few number of genes involved in this genetic hypertension.