Aim:To investigate the relationship between arterial baroreflex (ABR) function and telomere length in kidney of rats.Methods:Stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR-SP) and sinoaortic denervated rats (SAD) were used as models with depressed arterial baroreflex.In the first experiments,SHR-SP rats were examined at the age of 24 weeks for both sexes and 40 weeks for female rats. In the second experiments,SAD rats were studied 4 and 35 weeks after SAD operation.Blood pressure was continuously recorded for 4 h in a conscious state. After the determination of baroreflex sensitivity (BRS),the terminal restriction fragment (TRF) of rat kidney was analyzed using Southe blot.Results:The TRF length was found shorter in:a) male SHR-SP compared with age-matched female SHR-SP;b) female SHR-SP 40 weeks of age compared with 24 weeks of age; c) in rats 35 weeks after operation compared with rats 4 weeks post operation in both sham-operated and SAD rats.Conclusion:In SHR-SP,the TRF length did not correlate with BRS.In addition.SAD did not affect TRF length at either 4 or 35 weeks post-surgery.It may be concluded that baroreflex function does not influence the terminal restriction fragment (TRF) length in rats.