Age-related central and baroreceptor impairment in female Sprague-Dawley rats

1989 ◽  
Vol 256 (5) ◽  
pp. H1399-H1406 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Tanabe ◽  
R. D. Bunag

To determine whether baroreflex sensitivity changes with age, we compared drug-induced reflex responses in 2- and 9-mo-old female Sprague-Dawley rats anesthetized with urethan-chloralose. Baroreflexes were stimulated by elevating or lowering blood pressure with intravenous infusions of phenylephrine or sodium nitroprusside. Reflex responses in heart rate and sympathetic nerve activity during phenylephrine infusions were weaker in 9- than in 2-mo-old rats, as were reflex tachycardia during sodium nitroprusside infusion and decreases in heart rate and sympathetic nerve activity elicited by electrical stimulation of the left aortic depressor nerve. Afferent aortic nerve activity was also appreciably lower in 9-mo-old rats at pressures greater than 130 mmHg but did not differ between rat groups at normotensive pressures. These results suggest that baroreflex sensitivity in 9-mo-old rats can be characterized as follows: 1) impaired at pressures greater than 130 mmHg but still adequate at normotensive pressures, and 2) all reflex arc components may be impaired.

2013 ◽  
Vol 304 (11) ◽  
pp. H1538-H1546 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brittany S. Luckett ◽  
Jennifer L. Frielle ◽  
Lawrence Wolfgang ◽  
Sean D. Stocker

Accumulating evidence suggests that insulin acts within the hypothalamus to alter sympathetic nerve activity (SNA) and baroreflex function. Although insulin receptors are widely expressed across the hypothalamus, recent evidence suggests that neurons of the arcuate nucleus (ARC) play an important role in the sympathoexcitatory response to insulin. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether circulating insulin acts directly in the ARC to elevate SNA. In anesthetized male Sprague-Dawley rats (275–425 g), the action of insulin was neutralized by microinjection of an anti-insulin affibody (1 ng/40 nl). To verify the efficacy of the affibody, ARC pretreatment with injection of the anti-insulin affibody completely prevented the increase in lumbar SNA produced by ARC injection of insulin. Next, ARC pretreatment with the anti-insulin affibody attenuated the lumbar sympathoexcitatory response to intracerebroventricular injection of insulin. Third, a hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp increased lumbar, but not renal, SNA in animals that received ARC injection of a control affibody. However, this sympathoexcitatory response was absent in animals pretreated with the anti-insulin affibody in the ARC. Injection of the anti-insulin affibody in the adjacent ventromedial hypothalamus did not alter the sympathoexcitatory response to insulin. The ability of the anti-insulin affibody to prevent the sympathetic effects of insulin cannot be attributed to a general inactivation or nonspecific effect on ARC neurons as the affibody did not alter the sympathoexcitatory response to ARC disinhibition by gabazine. Collectively, these findings suggest that circulating insulin acts within the ARC to increase SNA.


1996 ◽  
Vol 270 (6) ◽  
pp. R1361-R1370 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. L. Liu ◽  
H. Murakami ◽  
I. H. Zucker

Recent data suggest that nitric oxide (NO) plays a role in the modulation of sympathetic nerve activity and baroreflex sensitivity. Most of these studies have been carried out in anesthetized preparations, and little if any comparison has been made on the relative role of NO on the baroreflex control of heart rate and sympathetic nerve activity. In the present studies, the effect of the NO synthase inhibitor NG-nitro-L-arginine (L-NNA) on the baroreflex control of heart rate (HR) and renal sympathetic nerve activity (RSNA) were investigated in conscious, instrumented rabbits. Intravenous bolus injections of 13 mg/kg of L-NNA decreased baseline HR (from 205.0 +/- 6.0 to 145.5 +/- 8.2 beats/min; P < 0.05) without significant changes in mean arterial pressure (MAP) and RSNA. L-NNA significantly reduced the lower plateau of the HR-MAP curves and increased the sensitivities of baroreflex control of HR and RSNA. L-Arginine (600 mg/kg i.v.) but not D-arginine reversed the above effects. The effects of L-NNA on baseline HR were not completely blocked by metoprolol (2 mg/kg) or by atropine (0.2 mg/kg). After pretreatment with metoprolol, baroreflex sensitivity was reduced and L-NNA increased baroreflex sensitivity back to the control level. After pretreatment with atropine, L-NNA still reduced the lower plateau but did not significantly affect baroreflex sensitivity. L-NNA increased the HR responses but not the RSNA response to electrical stimulation of the aortic nerve in chloralose-anesthetized, sinoaortic-denervated (SAD) rabbits. L-NNA had no effect on the HR response to right vagal stimulation. In both conscious intact and SAD rabbits, L-NNA did not increase baseline RSNA. These results suggest that endogenous NO decreases baroreflex control of HR and RSNA. Both sympathetic and parasympathetic components play a role in the effects of NO on the baroreflex control of HR. The effects of NO in the central nervous system play a more important role in the baroreflex control of HR than of RSNA.


2005 ◽  
Vol 288 (4) ◽  
pp. R856-R862 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Vitela ◽  
M. Herrera-Rosales ◽  
J. R. Haywood ◽  
S. W. Mifflin

Despite its usefulness as a nongenetic model of hypertension, little information is available regarding baroreflex function in the Grollman, renal wrap model of hypertension in the rat. Baroreflex regulation of renal sympathetic nerve activity (RSNA) and heart rate (HR) were studied in male, Sprague-Dawley rats hypertensive (HT) for 1 or 4–6 wk after unilateral nephrectomy and figure-8 ligature around the remaining kidney or normotensive (NT) after sham surgery. Rats were anesthetized with Inactin and RSNA, and HR was recorded during intravenous infusions of sodium nitroprusside or phenylephrine to lower or raise mean arterial pressure (MAP). Response curves were analyzed using a logistic sigmoid function. In 1- and 4-wk HT rats the midpoints of RSNA and HR reflex curves were shifted to the right ( P < 0.05). Comparing NT to 1- or 4-wk HT rats, the gain of RSNA-MAP curves was no different; however, gain was reduced in the HR-MAP curves at both 1 and 4 wk in HT rats ( P < 0.05). In anesthetized rats the HR range was small; therefore, MAP and HR were measured in conscious rats during intravenous injections of three doses of phenylephrine and three doses of sodium nitroprusside. Linear regressions revealed a reduced slope in both 1- and 4-wk HT rats compared with NT rats ( P < 0.05). The results indicate that baroreflex curves are shifted to the right, to higher pressures, in hypertension. After 1–4 wk of hypertension the gain of baroreflex regulation of RSNA is not altered; however, the gain of HR regulation is reduced.


2004 ◽  
Vol 106 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henri J. L. M. TIMMERS ◽  
Gerard A. RONGEN ◽  
John M. KAREMAKER ◽  
Wouter WIELING ◽  
Henri A. M. MARRES ◽  
...  

The direct vasodilatory and negative chronotropic effects of adenosine in humans are counterbalanced by a reflex increase in sympathetic nerve traffic. A suggested mechanism for this reflex includes peripheral chemoreceptor activation. We, therefore, assessed the contribution of carotid chemoreceptors to sympatho-excitation by adenosine. Muscle sympathetic nerve activity was recorded during adenosine infusion (140 µg·kg-1·min-1 for 5 min) in five patients lacking carotid chemoreceptors after bilateral carotid body tumour resection (one male and four female, mean age 51±11 years) and in six healthy controls (two male and four female, mean age 50±7 years). Sympathetic responses to sodium nitroprusside injections were assessed to measure baroreceptor-mediated sympathetic activation. In response to adenosine, controls showed no change in blood pressure, an increase in heart rate (+48.2±13.2%; P<0.003) and an increase in sympathetic nerve activity (+195±103%; P<0.022). In contrast, patients showed a decrease in blood pressure (-14.6±4.9/-17.6±6.0%; P<0.05), an increase in heart rate (+25.3±8.4%; P<0.032) and no significant change in sympathetic activity. Adenosine-induced hypotension in individual patients elicited less sympathetic activation than equihypotensive sodium nitroprusside injections. In humans lacking carotid chemoreceptors, adenosine infusion elicits hypotension due to the absence of significant sympatho-excitation. Chemoreceptor activation is essential for counterbalancing the direct vasodilation by adenosine. In addition, blunting of the baroreflex sympathetic response to adenosine-induced hypotension may indicate a direct sympatho-inhibitory effect of adenosine.


1997 ◽  
Vol 273 (2) ◽  
pp. R609-R614 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. J. MacNeil ◽  
A. H. Jansen ◽  
L. J. Janz ◽  
A. H. Greenberg ◽  
D. M. Nance

We tested whether prostaglandin synthesis mediates the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced increase in splenic sympathetic nerve activity. Sprague-Dawley rats were pretreated with intravenous or intracerebroventricular injections of indomethacin, and splenic nerve activity was recorded after intravenous injections of LPS. In vehicle-pretreated rats, 100 micrograms LPS induced a 62.8 +/- 5.6% increase in splenic nerve activity beginning 22.7 +/- 2.7 min postinjection. All vehicle-pretreated animals responded to high (100 micrograms, 5 of 5 animals) and low (10 micrograms, 8 of 8 animals) doses of LPS. Both intravenous (15 mg/kg) and intracerebroventricular (50 micrograms) pretreatments with indomethacin delayed (F1.19 = 30.66, P < 0.001) the increase in nerve activity after 100 micrograms LPS. When given intravenously, 50 micrograms indomethacin (the intracerebroventricular dose) did not delay the response to intravenous LPS, indicating that the effects of intracerebroventricular indomethacin pretreatment were restricted to the central nervous system. Importantly, intracerebroventricular indomethacin reduced (2 of 7 animals) or completely blocked (5 of 7 animals) the splenic nerve response to the low dose of LPS (10 micrograms, iv). The indomethacin effects could not be accounted for by central release of vasopressin because intracerebroventricular injection of indomethacin did not alter baseline nerve activity or blood pressure, whereas intracerebroventricular injection of vasopressin rapidly increased both measures. Additionally, central injection of LPS did not elevate splenic nerve activity, whereas intracerebroventricular injection of prostaglandin E2 induced a rapid (2.2 +/- 2.7 min) increase in splenic nerve activity. These data indicate that central prostaglandin synthesis is an intermediate step whereby systemic LPS elicits an increase in sympathetic outflow to an immune organ.


1998 ◽  
Vol 275 (6) ◽  
pp. H2130-H2139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tadeusz J. Scislo ◽  
Donal S. O’Leary

Activation of adenosine A2a and ATP P2x purinoceptors in the subpostremal nucleus tractus solitarii (NTS) via microinjection of the selective agonists CGS-21680 and α,β-methylene ATP (α,β-MeATP), respectively, elicits large dose-dependent decreases in arterial pressure and heart rate, differential regional vasodilation, and differential inhibition of regional sympathetic outputs. With marked hypotensive hemorrhage, preganglionic adrenal sympathetic nerve activity (pre-ASNA) increases, whereas renal (RSNA) and postganglionic adrenal sympathetic nerve activity (post-ASNA) decrease. In this setting, adenosine levels in the brain stem increase. Therefore, we investigated whether stimulation of specific purinoceptors in the NTS may evoke differential sympathetic responses. RSNA was recorded simultaneously with pre-ASNA or post-ASNA in chloralose-urethan-anesthetized male Sprague-Dawley rats. CGS-21680 (2 and 20 pmol in 50 nl) inhibited RSNA and post-ASNA, whereas pre-ASNA increased markedly. α,β-MeATP (25 and 100 pmol in 50 nl) inhibited all sympathetic outputs. Sinoaortic denervation plus vagotomy markedly prolonged the responses to P2x-purinoceptor stimulation. Glutamate (100 pmol in 50 nl) caused differential inhibition of all sympathetic outputs similar to that evoked by α,β-MeATP. We conclude that NTS A2a-purinoceptor activation evokes differential sympathetic responses similar to those observed during hemorrhage, whereas P2x-purinoceptor and glutamate-receptor activation evokes differential inhibition of sympathetic outputs similar to arterial baroreflex responses.


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