Effect of neonatal sympathectomy by 6-hydroxydopamine on volume and resistance regulation in stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats

Sympathetic nervous system and age-dependent salt hypertension in Brattleboro rats

The effects of early sympathectomy on the development of salt hypertension were studied in prepubertal and adult rats with hereditary diabetes insipidus (DI). Early guanethidine administration caused a pronounced and long-term destruction of sympathetic nervous system (SNS) in Brattleboro rats in which blood pressure (BP) was significantly decreased until the age of 22 weeks. This SNS impairment did not abolish the age-dependent BP response of salt-loaded rats that was still greater in young than in adult sympathectomized DI rats. BP of young uninephrectomized DI rats was higher in the late than in the early phase of salt hypertension development. The early sympathectomy lowered BP and increased mortality in all groups of saline drinking DI rats except young uninephrectomized animals in which hypertensive response was attenuated but not prevented. It could be suggested that 1) increased BP response of young rats to high salt intake occurs even in animals with attenuated principal pressor systems, 2) the effects of early sympathectomy on the development of salt hypertension depend on the actual hemodynamic pattern, and 3) moderate BP increase might be a part of homeostatic mechanisms defending the organism threatened by chronic salt overload.

Contribution of the sympathetic nervous system to the hypertensive effect of a high sodium diet in stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats

In stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRSP) plasma norepinephrine levels and vascular reactivity to norepinephrine are increased and intravascular volume is reduced during the developmental phase of hypertension. Since the accelerated rise in blood pressure following sodium-loading in SHRSP cannot be attributed to the volume-retaining properties of sodium, the effects of an increased dietary intake of sodium on biochemical parameters of sympathetic vascular tone were investigated. The following results were obtained. First, the increased reactivity of vascular smooth muscle was further augmented in sodium-treated SHRSP; the degree of supersensitivity was positively correlated to the plasma sodium concentration. After blockade of the neuronal uptake by 30 microM cocaine, no difference in vascular reactivity to norepinephrine was detected between SHRSP on a normal and SHRSP on a high-sodium diet. Second, the inactivation of norepinephrine by the neuronal uptake was impaired in rats on a high-sodium diet, the impairment being more pronounced in SHRSP than in Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats. This decreased inactivation could be expected to cause higher concentrations of the neurotransmitter at the receptor site if the transmitter release from the nerve ending remains constant. Third, the release of norepinephrine and epinephrine into the plasma was increased in sodium-loaded SHRSP but not in sodium-loaded WKY. Cold exposure exaggerates these differences between normotensive and hypertensive rats. These findings suggest that a high-sodium intake modifies the transmission of sympathetic impulses at the level of the nerve terminal in both WKY and SHRSP. In the normotensive rats, moderate impairment of norepinephrine inactivation, however, was balanced by an appropriate reduction in central sympathetic discharge following sodium-loading. In the hypertensive rats, the peripheral disturbance in norepinephrine inactivation due to sodium-loading was obviously not balanced by an adequate withdrawal of central sympathetic discharge. The resultant hemodynamic change was a further increase in the sympathetically mediated vasoconstriction, which is regarded as at least one of the main mechanisms of the sodium-dependent acceleration of hypertension in SHRSP.

Decreased release of norepinephrine in the isolated kidney of the adult spontaneously hypertensive rat

Renal resistance vessels of the mature spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) exhibit an increased reactivity to exogenous norepinephrine, but a normal response to renal nerve stimulation. This difference could be due either to depression of the exocytotic process or to accelerated disposition of the released transmitter. We compared the overflow of norepinephrine in isolated perfused kidneys from adult SHR and normotensive rats. After previous incubation with 3H-norepinephrine, renal nerve stimulation caused smaller increases in the overflow of intact tritiated transmitter and its metabolites in kidneys form SHR than in those from normotensive controls. A similar difference was found when the amounts of endogenous norepinephrine were measured radioenzymatically. The tissue content of norepinephrine was comparable in kidneys from both hypertensive and normotensive animals. The uptake of 3H-norepinephrine was comparable in kidneys from SHR and normotensive controls; cocaine caused a comparable depression of the 3H-uptake in which then explains the normal vasoconstrictor response to renal nerve stimulation despite the increased responsiveness of the vascular smooth muscle cells to norepinephrine.