Figure 5: Changes in 24-hr arterial pressure measured with telemetry in Dahl salt-sensitive hypertensive rats fed a regular diet for 6 days followed by a high-salt diet (8% NaCl diet) for 26 days. After 14 days, an icv catheter and an osmotic minipump were implanted aseptically, and then an nNOS inhibitor, SMTC (7 μg/hr, SMTC group), or vehicle (0.5 μl/hr, aCSF group) was infused icv over 12 days in salt-induced hypertensive rats. aCSF: artificial cerebrospinal fluid; MAP: mean arterial pressure. The MAP value in each day or night phase (D or N) of the day is the average of 1440 sampled values obtained with radiotelemetry over 12 hr for each group. Data are the mean ± SE (n = 5 for each group). *: p < 0.05 compared with the corresponding phase on Day 12 in the SMTC group, or compared with the corresponding day in the aCSF group. icv SMTC significantly amplified hypertension in salt-induced hypertension and worsened hypertension compared to the saline icv group [45].