Chronic measurement of left ventricular pressure in freely moving rats
Measurements of left ventricular pressure (LVP) in conscious freely moving animals are uncommon, yet could offer considerable opportunity for understanding cardiovascular disease progression and treatment. The aim of this study was to develop surgical methods…
Recording sympathetic nerve activity chronically in rats: surgery techniques, assessment of nerve activity, and quantification
The sympathetic nervous system plays a pivotal role in homeostasis through its direct innervation and functional impact on a variety of end organs. In rats, a number of methods are available to assess sympathetic nervous system function. Traditionally, direct…
Effect of insular cortex inactivation on autonomic and behavioral responses to acute hypoxia in conscious rats
The present work was aimed to evaluate the contribution of interoception to the autonomic and behavioral responses to hypoxia. To address this issue, we studied whether the inactivation of the primary interoceptive posterior insular cortex (pIC) may disrupt th…
Role of brain nitric oxide in the cardiovascular control of bullfrogs
The goal of the present study was to determine if nitric oxide (NO) acting on the brain of bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) is involved in arterial pressure and heart rate (HR) control by influencing sympathetic activity. We investigated the effect of intrac…
Telemetry-based oxygen sensor for continuous monitoring of kidney oxygenation in conscious rats
The precise roles of hypoxia in the initiation and progression of kidney disease remain unresolved. A major technical limitation has been the absence of methods allowing long-term measurement of kidney tissue oxygen tension (Po(2)) in unrestrained animals. We…
Necrotic trophoblast debris increases blood pressure during pregnancy
Preeclampsia is a major disease of human pregnancy characterised by hypertension and proteinuria. These signs are preceded by systemic maternal endothelial dysfunction. Hypertension in preeclampsia appears to be triggered by a placental factor, which leads to…
The carotid body as a putative therapeutic target for the treatment of neurogenic hypertension
In the spontaneously hypertensive (SH) rat, hyperoxic inactivation of the carotid body (CB) produces a rapid and pronounced fall in both arterial pressure and renal sympathetic nerve activity (RSA). Here we show that CB de-afferentation through carotid sinus n…
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms3395
Purinergic signalling in the rostral ventro-lateral medulla controls sympathetic drive and contributes to the progression of heart failure following myocardial infarction in rats
Heart failure may lead to hypoperfusion and hypooxygenation of tissues and this is often exacerbated by central and obstructive sleep apnoeas associated with recurrent episodes of systemic hypoxia which triggers release of ATP within the CNS circuits controlli…
Cafeteria diet increases fat mass and chronically elevates lumbar sympathetic nerve activity in rats
Obesity causes sympathetic activation that promotes atherosclerosis, end-organ damage, and hypertension. Because high-fat induced weight gain in rats elevates plasma leptin at 1 to 3 days after the onset of calorie-dense diets, we hypothesized that diet-induce…
Effects of sex and ovarian hormones on the initial renal sympathetic nerve activity response to myocardial infarction
The physiological mechanisms contributing to sex differences following myocardial infarction (MI) are poorly understood. Given the strong relationship between sympathetic nerve activity (SNA) and outcome, we hypothesized there may be a sex difference in SNA re…