title: Baroreflex control of heart rate and renal sympathetic nerve activity in rats with low brain angiotensinogen.
abstract: The main objective of the present study was to evaluate baroreceptor control of heart rate (HR) and renal sympathetic nerve activity (RSNA) in transgenic rats (TG) with low angiotensinogen production in glial cells, TGR(ASrAogen)-680. In addition, the sympathetic and vagal autonomic tonus to the heart was investigated. As previously shown, TG rats presented a lower arterial pressure (AP) and HR. However, TG rats had decreased AP variability during the night (8.9+/-0.4 mmHg vs 9.8+/-0.3 mmHg, in SD) accompanied by an increase in HR variability (39+/-1 beats/min vs 35+/-1 beats/min, in SD) and augmented locomotor activity during the night (3.5+/-0.3 counts/min vs 2.5+/-0.2 counts/min, in SD). In addition, TG rats presented increased baroreflex sensitivity for the RSNA (slope of line that correlates decreases in RSNA and increases in AP=1.36+/-0.18 vs 0.77+/-0.1, in SD) and an increased sensitivity for both the baroreflex bradycardia (0.79+/-0.04 ms/mmHg vs 0.52+/-0.04 ms/mmHg, in SD) and tachycardia (1.46+/-0.1 ms/mmHg vs 0.93+/-0.01 ms/mmHg, in SD). Further, TG rats had increased vagal tonus (25+/-3 beats/min vs 11+/-4 beats/min in SD) without significant change in the sympathetic tonus to the heart. These results confirm and extend previous observations showing that glial angiotensinogen, the main source of brain RAS peptides, importantly modulates sympathetic tonus, at least to the renal nerve, and vagal tonus to the heart.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Fisiologia e Biofísica, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av Antonio Carlos, 6627-ICB, 31270-901 Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil.
authors.forename: Sordaini M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Caligiorne
authors.forename: Ana Quênia G
authors.initials: AQ
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: Marco A P
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Fontes
authors.forename: Jose R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: Ovidiu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Baltatu
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bader
authors.forename: Robson A S
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.forename: Maria Jose
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Campagnole-Santos
mesh_terms: D000808:Angiotensinogen / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D017704:Baroreflex / Q000502:physiology*; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D006321:Heart / Q000294:innervation; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D007668:Kidney / Q000294:innervation*; D009457:Neuroglia / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013564:Sympathetic Nervous System / Q000502:physiology*; D013686:Telemetry; D014630:Vagus Nerve / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D000808:Angiotensinogen