Neural influences on renal responses to acute volume expansion in rats with heart failure

Experiments were performed to test the postulate that neural influences underlie the suppressed excretory response to acute volume expansion (VE) typically observed 3-4 wk after myocardial infarction to induce chronic heart failure (CHF). Responses to VE were assessed in innervated (intact) and denervated (DNX) kidneys of anesthetized CHF rats and sham-operated controls. CHF rats exhibited blunted natriuretic responses to VE in both intact kidneys (35% of sham response) and DNX kidneys (55% of sham DNX response). CHF rats also displayed suppressed excretory responses to atrial natriuretic factor (0.25 microgram.kg-1.min-1 iv) in both intact kidneys (74% of sham response) and DNX kidneys (63% of sham DNX response). Additional experiments confirmed that the compliance of the venoatrial junction did not differ between sham rats (52 +/- 2 mmHg/microliter) and CHF rats (54-2 mmHg/microliter). The observations support the contention that both tonic renal sympathetic renal nerve activity and suppressed renal atrial natriuretic factor responsiveness likely contribute to the blunted excretory response to VE during CHF.