ABSTRACT
Studies concerning the initiation, development, and maintenance of high blood pressure in animals provide much needed insight into the pathophysiology of this disease in the human population. They have been of significant benefit for understanding the various mechanisms which are of importance at different points along the course of the disorder called essential hypertension, which accounts for about 90% of the occurrence of an elevated blood pressure in humans. The etiology of human essential hypertension is, at worst, unknown, and, at best, characterized by an amalgam of current schools of thought. Thus, the contributions of each of the more well-defined animal models to determination of underlying causes should not be overlooked in terms of their applicability to studies of physiological mechanisms operating in essential hypertension.
