Faculty Collaboration Database

Reduction of elevated arterial blood pressure in obese Zucker rats by inhibition of ganglionic long-term potentiation. Neuropharmacology 2002 Dec;43(7):1070-6

Date

12/31/2002

Pubmed ID

12504912

DOI

10.1016/s0028-3908(02)00283-6

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-0036914072 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   25 Citations

Abstract

Sustained enhancement of the basal tone of ganglionic transmission is expected to result in an enduring increase in peripheral resistance that would lead to elevated blood pressure. Long-term potentiation of sympathetic ganglia is an activity-dependent long-lasting increase in strength of ganglionic transmission. Therefore, ganglionic long-term potentiation might be involved in the manifestation of neurogenic forms of hypertension. Expression of sympathetic ganglionic long-term potentiation is dependent on activation of 5-HT(3) receptor. We examined the possibility that elevated blood pressure in obese Zucker rat, which is reported to be stress-prone, might be partly due to a neurogenic factor resulting from expression of ganglionic long-term potentiation. Chronic treatment with the 5-HT(3) receptor antagonist ondansetron (0.5 mg/kg/day) caused a significant decrease in blood pressure of the obese Zucker rats without affecting that of normotensive lean Zucker rats. Electropysiological procedures to test for long-term potentiation in isolated ganglia suggest that ganglionic long-term potentiation has been previously expressed in vivo in ganglia from obese Zucker rat but not in those from the normotensive lean Zucker rats. The results indicate that expression of ganglionic long-term potentiation in sympathetic ganglia may be responsible for neurogenic increase in blood pressure, which contributes to the moderate hypertension often seen in the obese Zucker rats.

Author List

Gerges NZ, Aleisa AM, Alhaider AA, Alkadhi KA

Author

Nashaat Gerges PhD Chair, Professor in the School of Pharmacy Administration department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Animals
Blood Pressure
Ganglia
Hypertension
In Vitro Techniques
Long-Term Potentiation
Male
Ondansetron
Rats
Rats, Zucker
Receptors, Serotonin
Receptors, Serotonin, 5-HT3