Increased vascular sympathetic modulation in mice with Mas receptor deficiency

The angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2)/angiotensin (Ang)-(1-7)/Mas axis could modulate the heart rate (HR) and blood pressure variabilities (BPV) which are important predictors of cardiovascular risk and provide information about the autonomic modulation of the cardiovascular system. Therefore we investigated the effect of Mas deficiency on autonomic modulation in wild type and Mas-knockout (KO) mice.

Blood pressure was recorded at high sample rate (4000 Hz). Stationary sequences of 200-250 beats were randomly chosen. Frequency domain analysis of HR and BPV was performed with an autoregressive algorithm on the pulse interval sequences and on respective systolic sequences.

The KO group presented an increase of systolic arterial pressure (SAP; 127.26±11.20 vs 135.07±6.98 mmHg), BPV (3.54±1.54 vs 5.87±2.12 mmHg(2)), and low-frequency component of systolic BPV (0.12±0.11 vs 0.47±0.34 mmHg(2)).

The deletion of Mas receptor is associated with an increase of SAP and with an increased BPV, indicating alterations in autonomic control. Increase of sympathetic vascular modulation in absence of Mas evidences the important role of Ang-(1-7)/Mas on cardiovascular regulation. Moreover, the absence of significant changes in HR and HRV can indicate an adaptation of autonomic cardiac balance. Our results suggest that the Ang-(1-7)/Mas axis seems more important in autonomic modulation of arterial pressure than HR.