AJP - Heart and Circulatory Physiology, Vol 250, Issue 1 82-H86, Copyright © 1986 by American Physiological Society
Sensory denervation of the kidney attenuates renovascular hypertension in the rat
J. M. Wyss, N. Aboukarsh and S. Oparil
To determine the role of the renal afferent nerves in the pathogenesis of
one-kidney, one-clip renovascular hypertension, the renal afferent nerves
were selectively lesioned by dorsal rhizotomy, a procedure that eliminates
renal sensory input to the spinal cord but does not directly damage the
sympathomotor innervation of the kidney. One week after denervation, the
proximal left renal artery was clipped in denervated and sham control rats.
Blood pressure of the sham group rose progressively over the next 5 wk, to
185 mmHg (systolic). In contrast, blood pressure of the denervated rats
leveled off in the borderline hypertensive range, a level significantly
lower than that of the sham group but significantly higher than that of
non-clipped rats. In two further experiments the specificity of this effect
was demonstrated. Lesion of the dorsal root nerves on the side of
nephrectomy did not significantly lower blood pressure of non-clipped rats,
and contralateral dorsal rhizotomy did not lower the blood pressure of
clipped rats. These results demonstrate that the renal afferent nerves
significantly contribute to one-kidney, one-clip renovascular hypertension
in the rat.
