Hypertension induced in rats by small doses of cadmium

¹ Department of Physiology, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, New Hampshire; and the Brattleboro Retreat, Brattleboro, Vermont

Female rats on a cadmium-free diet exhibited fluctuating systolic hypertension when given cadmium in drinking water at subtoxic levels (5 ppm) from the time of weaning for 180–240 days. Relatively small accumulations of cadmium in kidney and liver were present, and hypertension was the only sign of toxicity. Male rats failed to show more than a tendency to hypertension when treated similarly. When rats were given choices of sodium chloride in drinking water, females took more water and two to three times as much salt as did males. Animals exposed to sodium chloride drank more water than did those not exposed, whether given cadmium or not. The presence of cadmium and/or hypertension at these concentrations did not affect the intake of salt or water.

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