RENAL VASCULAR HYPERTROPHY AND REMODELLING IN SHR: SYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM AND IMPLICATIONS FOR HYPERTENSION

高血压仍然是澳大利亚人的主要健康问题。六分之一的澳大利亚人患有高血压，随之而来的是中风和心脏病发作的风险增加。降压治疗是可以获得的，但通常必须在患者的余生中服用，而纳税人为降压药物付出的成本比任何其他健康问题都要大。高血压的预防依赖于确定最初的病因--但我们仍然不知道90%以上的高血压患者的病因。这个项目将研究神经对肾脏血管的过度活动是否可能是原因。这在人类和一种患高血压的大鼠(自发性高血压大鼠)身上是有证据的。我们的实验将研究这些大鼠，看看神经是否通过导致血压升高的方式影响肾脏血管的结构和功能。

High blood pressure (hypertension) remains a major health problem for Australians. One in six Australians suffer from hypertension, with consequent increased risk of stroke and heart attack. Anti-hypertensive treatments are available, but must usually be taken for the rest of the patient's life and the cost to the taxpayer of anti-hypertensive drugs is greater than for any other health problem. Prevention of high blood pressure depends on identifying the initial cause - but we still do not know the cause in over 90% of hypertensive people. This project will study whether overactivity of the nerves to the blood vessels of the kidney might be the cause. There is evidence for this in humans, and in a strain of rats which develops high blood pressure (the spontaneously hypertensive rat). Our experiments will study these rats to see whether nerves affect the structure and function of the blood vessels of the kidney in ways that lead to increased blood pressure.