AJP - Heart and Circulatory Physiology, Vol 243, Issue 2 284-H288, Copyright © 1982 by American Physiological Society
Role of renal nerves in onset and maintenance of spontaneous hypertension
R. A. Norman Jr and D. J. Dzielak
Renal denervation has been reported to delay development of hypertension in
Okamoto spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) but to have no effect on the
final hypertensive state. However, functional reinnervation begins to occur
about 1 mo after renal denervation. The arterial pressure of SHR undergoing
repeated bilateral renal denervations at the age of 4, 7, 10, 13, and 16 wk
was compared with that in sham-operated SHR. In addition, the effect of
successive renal denervations at 4, 7, and 10 wk of age in Wistar-Kyoto
(WKY) control rats was determined. Both indirect measurement of pressure by
the tail-cuff technique and mean arterial pressure (MAP) measurement
indicated that renal denervation prevents full expression of hypertension
in SHR. MAP in 19-wk-old renal-denervation SHR averaged 159 +/- 5.1 mmHg
(SE) vs. 178 +/-0 4.2 mmHg in sham-operated SHR. Renal denervation had no
effect on arterial pressure of WKY rats. Renal norepinephrine content in
the renal-denervated WKY rats and SHR was less than 20% of that in the
sham-operated groups. Successive bilateral renal denervations every 3 wk
blocks 30-40% of the expected progressive elevation of arterial pressure in
aging SHR.
