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Renal sympathetic nerve activity changes in the conscious rat during the development of heart failure
Author(s) -
Barrett Carolyn J,
Pinkham Maximilian I,
Guild SarahJane,
Malpas Simon C
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.25.1_supplement.1078.7
Subject(s) - medicine , cardiology , ventricle , myocardial infarction , heart failure , blood pressure , heart rate , sympathetic nervous system , anesthesia
It is well established that heart failure is associated with elevated sympathetic nerve activity. What is not clear is when the increase in activity occurs. The aim of this project was to establish the time course for the increase in renal sympathetic nerve activity (RSNA) following myocardial infarction (MI) in the rat. A feature of this study was that RSNA and arterial pressure were measured continuously via telemetry both before and for up to 3 weeks after MI or sham surgery in male rats. MI was induced by ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery at least 10 days after implantation of the telemetry units. Cardiac function was assessed via echocardiography on day 21 post‐MI. RSNA remained stable for the entire recording period in the sham operated rats. In contrast in the rats which had undergone MI RSNA showed a gradual increase; by day 14 RSNA had increased by more than 100%. At 3 weeks post‐MI fractional shortening was less than half that of the sham rats. No significant changes in arterial pressure or heart rate were observed in either group of rats. Post mortem analysis showed the infarcts ranged in size from 30–50% of the left ventricle. These experiments confirm that there is a gradual increase in renal sympathetic nerve activity in the early stages of the development of heart failure post‐MI. Funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand and Auckland Medical Research Foundation.