[The activity of the sodium-potassium pump of the mesenteric arteries and veins in normal rats and in DOCA-salt hypertension].

: The activity of sodium-potassium pump was studied in mesenteric arteries and veins of rats, as well as its inhibition effect upon catecholamine-induced contractile responses and the time of relaxation of these vessels in normal rats and in those with DOCA-salt hypertension. The activity was measured by 86Rb [correction of 86Rh] up-take. A difference in the ouabain-sensitive take-up was found between arteries and veins. It was higher in normotensive rats' veins than in arteries; in hypertension, the activity of the pump tended to decrease in arteries and sharply increased in veins. Inhibition of the pump with ouabain reduced arteries' contractile responses to noradrenaline and phenylephrine in normotensive animals, whereas in hypertension the effect involved all the types of stimulation leaving intact the contractions of venous vessels. Ouabain increased the period of relaxation of arteries and veins in some types of stimulation in normal as well as in hypertensive rats.