Calcium leakage as a cause of the high resting tension in vascular smooth muscle from the spontaneously hypertensive rat.

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Abstract
Aortic stips from spontaneously hypertensive (SH) rats relax in Ca-free physiological medium and contract to approximately 60% of maxium when Ca is again restored to the medium. The resting tension of aortic strips from normal rats is unaffected by manipulation of the Ca concentration of the bathing medium. The reduced sensitivity of aortic strips from SH rats to norepinephrine and the observation that aortic strips from SH rats relax at a faster rate in Ca-free medium in comparison with aortic strips from normal rats, are consistent with the hypothesis that vascular smooth muscle membranes from SH rats leak Ca at a rate that is only partially compensated by the Ca gump.