Sympathetic nerves protect the blood-brain barrier in stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats.
Disruption of the blood-brain barrier may play a major role in the pathogenesis of hypertensive encephalopathy. In this study we determined whether sympathetic nerves to cerebral vessels protect the blood-brain barrier during chronic hypertension. We removed the cervical sympathetic ganglion on one side in 24 stroke-prone hypertensive rats when they were 1 month old. After signs of cerebral dysfunction developed at the mean age of 160 +/- 5 days (SE), we injected 125I-albumin and Evans blue dye intravenously to evaluate the permeability of the 125I-albumin was 3.53 +/- 0.83 (brain albumin x 100/blood albumin) in areas of the cerebrum stained with blue dye and 0.24 +/- 0.02 in unstained areas (p less than 0.05). We conclude that sympathetic nerves protect the blood-brain barrier against disruption during chronic hypertension and thereby may protect against hypertensive encephalopathy.
D000418:Albumins / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D001812:Blood-Brain Barrier; D002543:Cerebral Hemorrhage / Q000175:diagnosis; D002544:Cerebral Infarction / Q000175:diagnosis; D002561:Cerebrovascular Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D005728:Ganglia, Sympathetic / Q000502:physiology*; D006973:Hypertension / Q000503:physiopathology; D009333:Neck; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains
D000418:Albumins