Sympathetic and pressor hyperresponsiveness to intracisternal injections of hypertonic NaCl in DOCA hypertensive rats

Blood pressure and sympathetic nerve activity were recorded before and after intracisternal injections of hypertonic NaCl solution in urethane anesthetized normotensive and deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA) hypertensive rats. Dose dependent pressor effects were recorded by intracisternal injections using normotensive Wistar rats. And the early phase of responses which were significantly depressed by blocking alpha-adrenergic receptors with phentolamine, accompanied by increased frequency of sympathetic nerve firing. Pressor responses and acceleration of the rate of sympathetic nerve firing produced by intracisternal injections of hypertonic NaCl were appreciably larger in DOCA hypertensives whose basal sympathetic nerve activity was elevated significantly than in normotensive rats. Pressor responses to intravenous injection of norepinephrine were also augmented, but responses to intracisternal injection were augmented more than those to norepinephrine injection. These findings suggest that sodium sensitive site which connects to pressor systems supposedly located around lower brain stem could be hypersensitive and eventually contribute to peripheral sympathetic hyperactivity in DOCA hypertension.