Table 5.

Maximal contractile responses of endothelium-denuded femoral arteries stimulated by either phenylephrine (Phe, 3.10⁻⁴ mol/l) or potassium (K⁺, 120 mmol/l) and the attenuation of these contractile responses by Rho kinase inhibitors Y-27632 or fasudil in blood vessels isolated from spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and Wistar-Kyoto controls (WKY), from heterozygous Ren-2 transgenic rats (TGR) and Hannover Sprague Dawley controls (HanSD) as well as from salt-sensitive (SS/Jr) and salt-resistant (SR/Jr) Dahl rats fed either a low-salt (LS) or high-salt (HS) diet (Experiment 4).

Strain	Number of segments	Maximal Phe-induced contraction (mN/mm)	% change induced by Y-27632	Number of segments	Maximal K+-induced contraction (mN/mm)	% change induced by fasudil
SHR	10	9.4 ± 0.2	−26 ± 5∗	11	10.8 ± 0.4∗	−34 ± 3∗
WKY	6	8.8 ± 0.5	−67 ± 3	7	9.4 ± 0.4	−45 ± 3
TGR	6	10.8 ± 0.4	−65 ± 2	12	12.9 ± 0.4∗	−50 ± 3
HanSD	6	12.0 ± 0.7	−67 ± 3	12	10.9 ± 0.6	−43 ± 4
SS/Jr-HS	11	9.9 ± 0.5#	−64 ± 2∗#	8	13.5 ± 0.7	−60 ± 6∗#
SS/Jr-LS	10	12.3 ± 0.7	−34 ± 3∗	8	14.0 ± 0.8	−34 ± 4
SR/Jr-HS	8	10.0 ± 0.5	−50 ± 2	9	14.3 ± 1.0	−33 ± 3
SR/Jr-LS	8	11.4 ± 0.9	−50 ± 4	8	13.3 ± 1.0	−35 ± 2

Data are means ± SEM. Significantly different (p < 0.05) ^∗from the respective normotensive controls and ^#from the corresponding rat strain fed a low-salt diet.