Genetic basis of rare arterial and renal phenotypes in the Brown Norway rat. Rattus norvegicus

The Brown Norway (BN) strain of rat is an inbred normotensive strain. BN rats of both sexes present some interesting pathophysiological phenotypes involving arteries and the kidneys. These include internal elastic lamina (IEL) ruptures in the abdominal aorta and iliac arteries, a deficit in aortic elastin content, a persistent ductus arteriosus, hydronephrosis and hematuria. Spontaneous rupture of the internal elastic lamina occurs in various arteries during growth and aging, in different rat strains, both normotensive and hypertensive. Most strains present such ruptures in their caudal and renal arteries, although to different extents (Osborne-Pellegrin 1985; Coutard and Osborne-Pellegrin 1991). However, the BN strain is the only rat strain to spontaneously develop numerous IEL ruptures in the abdominal aorta and iliac arteries (Osborne-Pellegrin et al., 1989; Behmoaras J et al., 2005). In this respect, it is exceptional. In this study samples of abdominal aortae of BN- and LOU-rats (here as control) were compared Keywords: strain effect Overall design: 10 chips were analyzed. They represent 2 groups of 5 replicates each. The 2 groups are 2 different rat strains: BN and LOU. Samples were prepared only from abdominal aortae (tissue).