Muscle sympathetic nerve activity and hemodynamic responses to venous distension: does sex play a role?

Peripheral venous distension mechanically stimulates type III/IV sensory fibers in veins and evokes pressor and sympathoexcitatory reflex responses in humans. As young women have reduced venous compliance and impaired sympathetic transduction, we tested the hypothesis that pressor and sympathoexcitatory responses to venous distension may be attenuated in women compared with men. Mean arterial pressure (photoplethysmography), heart rate (HR), stroke volume (SV; Modelflow), cardiac output (CO = HR × SV), muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA), femoral artery blood flow, and femoral artery conductance (Doppler ultrasound) were quantified in eight men (27 ± 4 yr) and nine women (28 ± 4 yr) before [control (CON)], during (INF), and immediately after (post-INF) a local infusion of saline [5% of the total forearm volume (30 ml/min); the infusion time was 2 ± 1 and 1 ± 1 min ( P = 0.0001) for men and women, respectively] through a retrograde catheter inserted into an antecubital vein, to which venous drainage and arterial supply had been occluded. Mean arterial pressure increased during and after infusion in both groups (vs. the CON group, P < 0.05), but women showed a smaller pressor response in the post-INF period (Δ+7.2 ± 2.0 vs. Δ+18.3 ± 3.9 mmHg in men, P = 0.019). MSNA increased and femoral artery conductance decreased similarly in both groups (vs. the CON group, P < 0.05) at post-INF. Although HR changes were similar, increases in SV (Δ+20.4 ± 8.6 vs. Δ+2.6 ± 2.7 ml, P = 0.05) and CO (Δ+0.84 ± 0.17 vs. Δ+0.34 ± 0.10 l/min, P = 0.024) were greater in men compared with women. Therefore, venous distension evokes a smaller pressor response in young women due to attenuated cardiac adjustments rather than reduced venous compliance or sympathetic transduction. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We found that the pressor response to venous distension was attenuated in young women compared with age-matched men. This was due to attenuated cardiac adjustments rather than reduced venous compliance, sympathetic activation, or impaired transduction and vascular control. Collectively, these findings suggest that an attenuated venous distension reflex could be involved in orthostatic intolerance in young women.