scholarly journals Effect of chronic volume overload on baroreflex control of heart rate and sympathetic nerve activity

1997 ◽  
Vol 273 (6) ◽  
pp. H2580-H2585 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roland Willenbrock ◽  
Harald Stauss ◽  
Michaela Scheuermann ◽  
Karl Josef Osterziel ◽  
Thomas Unger ◽  
...  

Baroreceptor-heart rate reflex sensitivity is decreased in congestive heart failure. The reflex control of heart rate and sympathetic nerve activity in rats with chronic volume overload, an established model for moderate heart failure, is still unknown. Therefore, we investigated the regulation of humoral and neuronal sympathetic activity and the baroreflex control of heart rate and sympathetic nerve activity in conscious, unrestrained rats with aortocaval shunt. Rats with aortocaval shunts had larger hearts (388 ± 11 vs. 277 ± 4 mg/100 g body wt), elevated central venous pressures (14 ± 4 vs. 4 ± 3 mmHg), and higher atrial natriuretic peptide plasma levels (87 ± 16 vs. 25 ± 3 pmol/l) than controls but had similar systemic blood pressure and heart rate values. Plasma epinephrine (0.63 ± 0.16 vs. 0.21 ± 0.08 pmol/l, P < 0.05) and norepinephrine concentrations (0.27 ± 0.03 vs. 0.16 ± 0.02 pmol/l, P < 0.05) were elevated in shunted rats compared with controls. Nitroprusside-induced hypotension led to a significantly greater increase in efferent splanchnic sympathetic nerve activity in shunted rats than in controls (0.9 ± 0.1 vs. 2.6 ± 0.6 μV, P < 0.05), whereas the heart rate responses were not different between the groups. These results indicate that the regulation of the autonomic nervous system is altered in chronically volume-overloaded rats. The arterial baroreflex control of efferent splanchnic sympathetic nerve activity was dissociated from the control of heart rate. Therefore, analysis of the activation of sympathetic nervous system assessed by direct measurements of efferent sympathetic nerve activity appears to be more sensitive for the detection of altered autonomic nervous system function than the analysis of baroreflex control of heart rate.

2007 ◽  
Vol 293 (1) ◽  
pp. H798-H804 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. D. Watson ◽  
S. G. Hood ◽  
R. Ramchandra ◽  
R. M. McAllen ◽  
C. N. May

Increased sympathetic drive to the heart worsens prognosis in heart failure, but the level of cardiac sympathetic nerve activity (CSNA) has been assessed only by indirect methods, which do not permit testing of whether its control by arterial baroreceptors is defective. To do this, CSNA was measured directly in 16 female sheep, 8 of which had been ventricularly paced at 200–220 beats/min for 4–6 wk, until their ejection fraction fell to between 35 and 40%. Recording electrodes were surgically implanted in the cardiac sympathetic nerves, and after 3 days' recovery the responses to intravenous phenylephrine and nitroprusside infusions were measured in conscious sheep. Electrophysiological recordings showed that resting CSNA (bursts/100 heartbeats) was significantly elevated in heart-failure sheep (89 ± 3) compared with normal animals (46 ± 6; P < 0.001). This increased CSNA was not accompanied by any increase in the low-frequency power of heart-rate variability. The baroreceptor-heart rate reflex was significantly depressed in heart failure (maximum gain −3.29 ± 0.56 vs. −5.34 ± 0.66 beats·min−1·mmHg−1 in normal animals), confirming published findings. In contrast, the baroreflex control of CSNA was undiminished (maximum gain in heart failure −6.33 ± 1.06 vs. −6.03 ± 0.95%max/mmHg in normal sheep). Direct recordings in a sheep model of heart failure thus show that resting CSNA is strikingly increased, but this is not due to defective control by arterial baroreceptors.


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.


2017 ◽  
Vol 595 (11) ◽  
pp. 3319-3330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renata Maria Lataro ◽  
Luiz Eduardo Virgilio Silva ◽  
Carlos Alberto Aguiar Silva ◽  
Helio Cesar Salgado ◽  
Rubens Fazan

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