Lack of evidence for a role for either the in utero or suckling periods in the exaggerated salt preference of the spontaneously hypertensive rat

Abstract

When offered as a choice with drinking water in two-bottle preference tests, the spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) of the Okamoto strain exhibit a marked preference for saline solutions. While this behaviour is thought to be in part genetically determined, the role of environmental influences-in particular, perinatal ones-are poorly understood. In this study, we have used combined embryo transfer and cross-fostering techniques between SHR and normotensive Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rats to delineate the relative roles of the prenatal and postnatal, suckling environment on the exaggerated saline preference of male SHR and WKY offspring at 20 weeks of age. We found, using two-bottle preference tes..