Renal Vascular and Glomerular Pathologies Associated with Spontaneous Hypertension in the Nonhuman Primate Chlorocebus aethiops sabaeus

Hypertension is a complex disease affecting 78 million adults in the United States. The etiology of essential hypertension is unknown and current experimental models do not recapitulate all behavioral and physiological characteristics of the pathology. Researchers should assess the translational capacity of these models and look to other animal models for the discovery of new therapies. Chlorocebus aethiops sabaeus, the African Green Monkey (AGM), is a nonhuman primate that develops spontaneous hypertension and is a novel translational model for the study of hypertension and associated diseases. In a group of 424 adult AGMs, 37% (157/424) exhibited systolic blood pressures (SBP) >140 mmHg (SBP: 172.0±2.2 mmHg) and were characterized as hypertensive (HT). 44% (187/424) were characterized as normotensive with SBP <120 mmHg (NT, SBP: 99.6±1.0 mmHg) and the remaining 18% (80/424) as borderline hypertensive (BHT, SBP: 130.6±0.6 mmHg). Compared to NT animals, HT AGMs are older (8.7±0.6 vs 12.4±0.7 years, p<0.05) with elevated heart rates (121.3±1.91 vs 34.3±2.1 BPM, p<0.05). BHT animals had average heart rates of 138.2±3.1 BPM (p<0.05 vs. NT) and were 11.00±0.9 years old. NT and HT animals had similar levels of angiotensinogen gene expression, plasma renin activity, and renal cortical renin content (p>0.05). HT monkeys exhibit renal vascular remodeling (wall/lumen ratio NT 0.11±0.01 vs HT 0.15±0.02, p<0.05) and altered glomerular morphology (Bowman's capsular space: NT 30.9±1.9% vs HT 44.4±3.1%, p<0.05). The hypertensive AGM is an animal model that is highly similar to humans and may help identify novel, effective targets for the treatment of hypertension.

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