Chronic Cannabidiol Treatment Significantly Reduces Arterial Pressure in Renovascular Hypertensive Rats Independent of Aortic Stiffness

Long-term cannabidiol (CBD) has been used to treat several symptoms of different diseases. In addition, we previously demonstrated that chronic (2 weeks) CBD treatment mitigated the increased arterial pressure (AP) and reactive oxygen species in the aorta of 2-kidney,1-clip (2K1C) renovascular hypertensive rats. Thus, we hypothesised that: 1) 2K1C rats would present an increased AP and aorta stiffness, and 2) long-term CBD treatment would prevent that. Male Holtzman rats (200-230 g) were used. On day 1, the rats underwent 2K1C surgery to induce renovascular hypertension by occluding the left renal artery. At the end of the 4th week after 2K1C or SHAM surgery, CBD-based olive oil (30 mg/kg/12 h for 2 weeks by intragastric gavage, i.g.) or olive oil (~0.4 µl/rat, i.g.) treatment started for the next 2 weeks. At the end of the 6 th week, pulse wave velocity (PWV) was used to estimate aorta stiffness in anesthetized rats with ketamine and xylazine (75 mg and 10mg/kg body weight, i.p., respectively). Mean AP (MAP) was recorded in conscious rats three days later. We observed that in 2K1C-OIL, there was an increase in PWV compared to SHAM-OIL (7.5 ± 0.8, vs SHAM-OIL: 4.9 ± 0.3 s, p < 0.05), but the CBD treatment did not change this variable (6.1 ± 0.4 s, vs 2K1C-OIL, p > 0.05). However, the increase in MAP observed in the 2K1C-OIL group (180 ± 10, vs. SHAM-OIL: 112 ± 5 mmHg, p < 0.05) was highly reduced in the 2K1C-CBD group (127 ± 7 mmHg, vs 2K1C-OIL, p < 0.05). Anthropometric data demonstrated that CBD treatment did not significantly change the body weight within the group, although 2K1C rats gained less weight than SHAM. Therefore, these findings suggest that chronic CBD treatment effectively lowers MAP in 2K1C hypertensive rats, but it was not enough to improve PWV in these hypertensive rats. CNPq (407565/2023-0 and 317348/2021-3) and CAPES PrINT (88887.194785/2018-00). This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2025 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.