Hypothalamic knife cuts attenuate maintenance of deoxycorticosterone acetate-salt induced hypertension

These experiments tested the effects of knife cuts transecting neural pathways associated with the anteroventral third ventricle (AV3V) region on deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA)-salt induced hypertension. Coronal knife cuts of the descending medial neural pathway from the AV3V region between the medial preoptic area and anterior hypothalamus did not significantly alter DOCA-salt hypertension. However, parasagittal cuts which separated the AV3V region from the medial forebrain bundle attenuated the hypertension following 5 weeks of DOCA-salt treatment.