Neurohumoral Control of Veins in Hypertension

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Hypertension is a significant public health concern around the world because it is an important risk factor for cardiovascular and renal disease. Most efforts to understand and treat this condition have focused logically on either the kidney or arteries. The three central and complementary themes of this Program Project are: veins play an important role in the long-term control of arterial pressure; neurohumoral mechanisms regulating venous smooth muscle activity are fundamentally different from those of arteries; and abnormalities in neurohumoral regulation specific to veins are a significant part of the etiology of hypertension. The overall strategy for achieving the experimental goals listed above will be to capitalize on the diverse scientific expertise of individual project investigators - from whole animal studies to molecular approaches - to test in detail a single integrated hypothesis linking the sympathetic nervous system, ET-1 and reactive oxygen species to the control of venomotor tone and blood pressure. We will focus our efforts on understanding the etiology of hypertension primarily using the DOCA-salt model of hypertension in rats. Project 1 will assess venous function in conscious rats using a number of whole body measures including blood pressure, mean circulatory filling pressure, cardiac output, and fluid volume distribution using bioimpedance. Project 2 focuses on differences in adrenergic neurotransmission in veins versus arteries and the adaptive mechanisms of veins to hypertension. Project 3 aims at comparing properties of sympathetic neurons targeting arteries, veins and the heart in normotensive and hypertensive rats, and the generation and effects of superoxide and other reactive oxygen species in sympathetic ganglia. Project 4 will investigate arterial vs venous function by examining how ET receptors operate differently in arteries versus veins, why arteries and veins have different reactive oxygen species metabolizing systems and why veins and arteries have a different response (adaptive or otherwise) to the stresses of hypertension. Lay Summary: High blood pressure (hypertension) is a major human health problem. Many scientists feel the causes of hypertension can be found in abnormal function of the kidney or arteries. This project tests the idea that altered structure or function of veins also may cause hypertension, and that it may be possible to treat hypertension using drugs that affect veins.