Variation of Systolic Blood Pressure in Rats Exposed to Cadmium and Nickel

This research was intended to verify separate and combined effects of cadmium and nickel on blood pressure in rats. After cadmium chloride (CdCl2) and nickel chloride (NiCl2) were administered individually and combined by intraperitoneal injection to rats daily for a week, systolic blood pressure of the tails were measured at 1, 5, 10, 20, and 30 days after administration. Each substance was injected into rats with 0.1 mg/kg·bw and 1.0 mg/kg·bw concentrations. After 0.1 mg/kg·bw CdCl2 was injected, statistically significant differences from the control group (only saline) were found at 1, 5, and 10 days. After 0.1 mg/kg·bw NiCl2 was injected, no statistically significant differences from the control group were found. After 0.1 mg/kg·bw CdCl2 and 0.1 mg/kg·bw NiCl2 were injected combined simultaneously, statistically significant differences from the control group were found at 1, 5, and 10 days, compared with the 0.1 mg/kg·bw CdCl2 group after 5 days and the 0.1 mg/kg·bw NiCl2 group after 5 and 10 days. After 1.0 mg/kg·bw CdCl2 was injected, statistically significant differences from the control group were found at 1, 5, 10, and 20 days. After 1.0 mg/kg·bw NiCl2 was injected, statistically significant differences from the control group were found at 1 and 5 days. After 1.0 mg/kg·bw CdCl2 and 1.0 mg/kg·bw NiCl2 were injected combined, statistically significant differences were found at 1, 5, 10, 20, and 30 days, compared with 1.0 mg/kg·bw CdCl2 at 10, 20, and 30 days and 1.0 mg/kg·bw NiCl2 at 5, 10, 20, and 30 days. It was found that the effect of CdCl2 on blood pressure was much more than that of NiCl2 and the combination of CdCl2 and NiCl2 in high concentration delayed recovery of blood pressure.