Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Treatment of young rats with vitamin D3 plus nicotine has been proposed as a model of cardiovascular calcium overload. This treatment produced a 20-35-fold increase in the calcium content of the aorta, a compliance vessel, and this increase was accompanied by a 1.6-fold elevation of pulse pressure. In aortic rings, the maximal inhibition by the endothelium-dependent vasodilator, carbachol, of vasoconstriction induced by noradrenaline decreased from 90% in controls to 61% in treated animals. There were significant correlations between aortic calcium content and pulse pressure and aortic calcium content and carbachol-induced relaxation. In conclusion, the vitamin D3 plus nicotine model may be useful for the study of the role of calcium overload in decreased arterial compliance coupled with endothelial injury.
Henrion et al. (Tue,) studied this question.