Reduced Sensitivity of the Renal Circulation to Angiotensin II in Pregnant Rats

Hypertension ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 580-584 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Novak ◽  
Jane Reckelhoff ◽  
Leslie Bumgarner ◽  
Kathy Cockrell ◽  
Salah Kassab ◽  
...  
1987 ◽  
Vol 253 (6) ◽  
pp. F1197-F1205 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. P. Conrad ◽  
M. J. Dunn

We tested whether vasodilatory prostaglandins (PGs) mediate the adaptation of the maternal renal circulation to pregnancy by assessing production of PGs by kidney tissues in vitro. We reasoned that if PGs are crucial, then local synthetic rates of these hormones would most likely be increased. Glomeruli harvested from gravid rats of gestational days 6, 12, and 20 did not demonstrate greater basal or stimulated syntheses of PGF2 alpha, PGE2, or 6-keto-PGF1 alpha than those from virgin controls. Production of PGE2 and 6-keto-PGF1 alpha by renal cortical slices obtained from pregnant rats was not greater than that of virgins either. Urine 24-h excretory rates of PGE2 and 6-keto-PGF1 alpha, but not PGF2 alpha, were significantly increased during pregnancy (all P less than 0.05 from prepregnant levels). During midgestation, when urinary excretion of PGE2 and 6-keto-PGF1 alpha was greatest, medullary syntheses of these PGs were found to be comparable between virgin and gravid animals. The present study, which fails to show augmented synthesis of PGs by renal tissues derived from gravid rats, is consistent with our previous investigation in which cyclooxygenase inhibition did not reduce the gestational increase of renal hemodynamics or restore the attenuated renal pressor responsiveness to exogenous angiotensin II. Taken together, we conclude that in rats, PGs most likely do not mediate the alterations in the renal circulation observed during pregnancy.


1984 ◽  
Vol 247 (1) ◽  
pp. H100-H108 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. S. Paller

The mechanism of decreased pressor responsiveness to pressor agents was examined serially throughout pregnancy in conscious rats. Rats, 15 and 20 days pregnant, showed marked blunting of the pressor response to graded doses of angiotensin, whereas after only 5 days of pregnancy there was a normal response and at 10 days an intermediate pressor response. A role for prior occupancy of vascular angiotensin II receptors for the blunted pressor response was made less likely by the observation that treatment with captopril to decrease endogenous angiotensin II did not improve the angiotensin II pressor response in 15-day pregnant rats. Studies of smooth muscle receptor binding of angiotensin II showed that, in pregnancy, receptor affinity and number was not changed. Inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis with meclofenamate increased the pressor response to angiotensin II toward normal in pregnant animals. The blunted vascular response in pregnancy was not specific for angiotensin since pregnant animals showed a similar decrease in the response to both norepinephrine and arginine vasopressin. Furthermore, meclofenamate increased the pressor response to norepinephrine and vasopressin in pregnant rats. We conclude that pressor hyporesponsiveness in pregnancy is not specific for angiotensin II and is not caused by alterations in vascular receptor occupancy or binding. In pregnancy there is a decreased pressor response to all three major pressor agents that is improved by inhibition of prostaglandin production.


1993 ◽  
Vol 265 (6) ◽  
pp. R1270-R1275
Author(s):  
T. Hines ◽  
M. D. Lindheimer ◽  
W. M. Barron

Pressor responses to angiotensin II (ANG II) are markedly attenuated in reflex-intact pregnant animals, a phenomenon widely attributed to intrinsic changes in vascular reactivity. To test the hypothesis that gestational augmentation of neural reflex activity contributes importantly to this phenomenon, changes in mean arterial pressure (MAP), cardiac output (CO), and total peripheral resistance (TPR) were compared during constant infusion (25-400 ng.kg-1.min-1) of ANG II in conscious virgin and pregnant rats, using a model of total autonomic blockade (chlorisondamine chloride and methscopolamine bromide), with restoration of baseline hemodynamics by infusion of norepinephrine. Basal CO was higher and TPR lower in pregnant (CO 121.8 +/- 3.8 ml/min; TPR 0.78 +/- 0.04 mmHg.ml-1.min) compared with virgin (CO 95.9 +/- 3.9 ml/min; TPR 1.05 +/- 0.08 mmHg.ml-1.min) rats (P < 0.005). Pressor responses to ANG II were similar in both groups of reflex-blocked animals due to comparable changes in TPR and CO (not significant by repeated-measures analysis of variance). Other experiments demonstrated that changes in MAP after bolus administration of ANG II did not differ in areflexic virgin and gravid rats. Thus in the absence of autonomic control ANG II has similar effects on systemic resistance in pregnant and nonpregnant rats, suggesting that reflex neural mechanisms contribute significantly to gestational changes in pressor responsiveness. These data further suggest that pregnancy is not accompanied by a generalized decrease in vascular reactivity to all pressor agents.


1992 ◽  
Vol 262 (6) ◽  
pp. R1100-R1105 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Hines ◽  
W. M. Barron

We tested the hypothesis that augmented arterial baroreflex activity contributes to attenuation of pressor responses in intact pregnant animals by comparing changes in blood pressure and heart rate during infusions of angiotensin II, phenylephrine, and vasopressin in chronically instrumented pregnant and virgin rats approximately 5 wk after sinoaortic denervation (SAD) or sham surgery. Baseline mean arterial pressure was significantly lower in pregnant animals in both the sham-operated (pregnant 91.7 +/- 1.7 mmHg, virgin 103.7 +/- 2.5 mmHg) and SAD states (pregnant 107.3 +/- 4.0 mmHg, virgin 114.1 +/- 4.0 mmHg). Pressor responses to all three agents were significantly blunted in pregnant animals compared with similarly treated virgins, with the magnitude of attenuation similar in both sham and SAD states. Heart rate decreased similarly in reflex-intact pregnant and virgin animals during pressor infusions. These findings suggest that attenuated pressor responses in the pregnant rat are due primarily to mechanisms other than augmentation of arterial baroreflex activity and are consistent with a generalized reduction in vascular sensitivity during gestation.


Hypertension ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 742-745 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara T. Alexander ◽  
Kathy Cockrell ◽  
Farrah D. Cline ◽  
Maria T. Llinas ◽  
Mona Sedeek ◽  
...  

1987 ◽  
Vol 65 (12) ◽  
pp. 2415-2421 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. A. Cupples ◽  
H. Sonnenberg

It has been proposed that medullary washout secondary to increased blood flow will limit maximal urine osmolality and reabsorption of salt and water from the inner medullary collecting duct. We have tested this prediction. The function of the inner medullary collecting duct was examined by microcatheterization. Acetylcholine was infused directly into the renal circulation, captopril was infused intravenously, and angiotensin II was infused into the renal circulation in rats which also received captopril. Medullary plasma flow rate, measured by dye–dilution in parallel experiments, was not significantly increased by acetylcholine; it was increased 30% (p < 0.02) by systemic infusion of captopril, and was returned to control by angiotensin II. Acetylcholine increased both urine flow rate and sodium excretion (p < 0.01, p < 0.001, respectively), while captopril increased only sodium excretion (p < 0.025). Angiotensin II blocked the natriuresis due to captopril. None of the treatments altered urine osmolality (p > 0.4 in all cases). Acetylcholine increased the loads of water, sodium, chloride, and total solute delivered to the inner medullary collecting duct. Angiotensin II reduced delivery of water and solutes compared with captopril alone. None of the treatments affected load dependency of reabsorption of water, sodium, chloride, or total solute in the inner medullary collecting duct. We conclude that there is, at most, a weak interaction between medullary blood flow and reabsorption from the inner medullary collecting duct.


1982 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 703-707 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. I. Fuchs ◽  
L. G. Moore ◽  
S. Rounds

Pulmonary arterial pressure is decreased in pregnant women despite increased cardiac output, suggesting that pulmonary vascular resistance is decreased in pregnancy. To determine if pulmonary vascular reactivity is decreased in pregnant rats, lungs isolated from pregnant rats were perfused with blood from other pregnant rats at constant flow rate, and pressor responses to airway hypoxia and to angiotensin II were measured. Compared with responses obtained in lungs from nonpregnant female rats, hypoxic and angiotensin II pressor responses were blunted in pregnancy. To separate possible effects of pregnancy on the lung from those of substance(s) circulating in the blood in pregnancy, we perfused lungs from nonpregnant rats with blood from pregnant rats. Both the hypoxic and angiotensin II pressor responses were blunted by blood from pregnant rats. The angiotensin II pressor response was blunted also in lungs from pregnant rats perfused with blood from nonpregnant rats. These results suggest that a circulating substance is responsible for blunting of pulmonary vascular reactivity in pregnancy and that changes in the lung induced by pregnancy also depress angiotensin II responses. It is unlikely that estrogen and progesterone were responsible for these effects, since lungs and blood obtained from animals treated with these hormones did not have blunted pulmonary vascular reactivity.


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