Lack of association between blood pressure, target organ damage and retinopathy in the L-NAME rat hypertension model: Are new animal models of hypertension required?.

Animal models of hypertension are widely used by the national and international scientific community to study potential antihypertensive drugs. Nevertheless, some of the hypertension complications are not completely expressed in animal models. In this article the lack of blood pressure and retinopathy correlation in the L-NAME hypertensive rat model is presented. Furthermore, questions related to the development of new animal hypertension model, with a better correlation to human hypertension that would allow a more certain prediction regarding the effects of an antihypertensive drug are posed.