For women with high blood pressure, a chemical compound similar to those found in dynamite and gunpowder may protect their female offspring from developing the condition. This is according to a new study published in the journal Hypertension.

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An explosive compound – PETN – appeared to lower systolic blood pressure in the female offspring of rats with hypertension.

Poor diet, lack of physical activity, high alcohol consumption and obesity are all risk factors for high blood pressure, but these can be controlled. Unfortunately, there are some risk factors for the condition – such as a family history of high blood pressure – that cannot be changed.

But researchers from Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, say this could one day change for daughters of mothers with high blood pressure.

In their study, the team found that pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) – an explosive compound that is part of the same chemical family as nitroglycerin (a component in dynamite) and nitrocellulose (a primary component in gunpowder) – appeared to stop high blood pressure developing in the female offspring of rats with the condition.

Each day throughout pregnancy and lactation, the team gave pregnant rats with high blood pressure 50 mg of PETN for every 1 kg they weighed. The compound was mixed in with the rats’ food.

The researchers found that PETN had no effect on the blood pressure of the pregnant rats. However, it appeared to lower the systolic blood pressure of their female offspring by around 10-13 mm/Hg.

The female offspring of pregnant rats that did not receive PETN saw no improvement in blood pressure, and PETN had no effect on the blood pressure of male offspring.

The team says that because PETN had no effect on blood pressure of parent rats, only female offspring, this indicates that the compound is not directly responsible for the lowering of blood pressure.

Instead, they believe that the compound triggers changes in the genes of the offspring, causing them to produce a higher number of blood vessel-relaxing molecules, leading to lower blood pressure.

This hypothesis stems from the fact that both PETN and nitroglycerin are already used for the treatment of coronary artery disease, particularly for angina, or chest pain. They work by relaxing the blood vessels.

Co-author Dr. Huige Li, a professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the University Medical Center of Johannes Gutenberg, says nitroglycerin is preferred for the treatment of acute chest pain because it works quickly.

“For the prevention of chest pain as a long-term medication, however, nitroglycerin is not continuously effective because of the phenomenon known as nitrate tolerance,” Dr. Li adds. “PETN has an important advantage in chronic use. At least in animal studies, PETN doesn’t cause nitrate tolerance.”

Although the results from this study are encouraging, Dr. Li says they should be interpreted with caution:

While the pre-birth programming effect of PETN shows promise for future clinical implications, we must be careful about generalizing findings from animal studies to humans.

We should first evaluate the blood pressure development and the long-term safety in the children of such PETN-treated patients, before considering maternal PETN treatment as a therapy option for hypertension in humans.”

Last month, Medical News Today reported on a study published in JAMA Dermatology, which suggested that people with moderate and severe psoriasis may have a higher risk of uncontrolled high blood pressure than those without the skin disease.