Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Hypertension, or high blood pressure, affects 1 in 5 Canadians and is the leading cause of cardiovascular disease. In 95% of hypertension cases, patients are diagnosed with essential (primary) hypertension, which has no known single cause, but many environmental and genetic factors lead to its occurrence. Hormones called catecholamines are involved in the body's response to a stressor: they help produce the "fight or flight" response, which increases heart rate, respiration rate, and blood pressure. The continuous release of the catecholamine epinephrine (adrenaline) is an important factor leading to hypertension. Thus, it can be assumed that the enzyme that produces epinephrine plays an important role in the development of hypertension. This enzyme, phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase (PNMT), is the core of this study. One important trigger of epinephrine production by PNMT in humans is a glucocorticoid, namely cortisol. An excess of glucocorticoid exposure during fetal development can bring about hypertension in adulthood. This study will help determine if hypertension can be passed across multiple generations. The parents of a first generation of rats will be injected with a potent glucocorticoid and the blood pressure of the subsequent generations will be measured. The molecular regulation of PNMT will be studied in all generations. Comparisons will be made between the offspring of males and of females. The findings of this study will help improve our knowledge of the development of hypertension across multiple generations. It can help lead to preventative measures or cures of hypertension.