Evidence for the role of PO4 deficiency in antihypertensive action of a high-Ca diet

Previous studies indicated a salutary effect of a high-Ca diet on high blood pressure (BP). The mechanism, however, is obscure. With balance and clearance techniques, the role of parathyroid hormone (PTH), volume contraction, hypercalcemia, and PO4 deficiency was evaluated in female spontaneous hypertensive rats (SHR). The antihypertensive effects of a high (4.3%) Ca diet in intact animals (groups I and II) could be reproduced in both 9- and 22-wk-old chronic stable parathyroidectomized (PTX) rats (groups III and IV), when compared with a low (0.22%) or normal (1.2%) CA diet. In both short (7 days) and long (12 wk) term exposure to the high-Ca diet, evidence for volume contraction could not be documented despite hypercalcemia sustained through the 12th wk (10.8 vs. 9.7 mg/100 ml, group I control, P less than 0.02). When produced by ip injections, chronic hypercalcemia of similar magnitudes as oral Ca supplements failed to reduce BP in either intact (group VI) or PTX (group IV) rats. Rats in group IV fed t...