[Influence of hypertension and age on the sympathetic and parasympathetic components of cardiac baroreflex in the conscious rat].

The influence of blood pressure (BP) level and age on the baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) and its autonomic nervous components was studied in genetically hypertensive (LH), normotensive (LN) and low blood pressure (LL) rats of the Lyon strains at 5, 9, 13 and 70 weeks of age. BRS was computed as the slope of the closest relationship, according to the cardiac response delay, between systolic blood pressure (SBP) and heart period changes induced by phenylephrine injections (3 micrograms/kg, i.v.) BRS and the relative importance of vagal and sympathetic components were determined in 4 conditions: 1) basal; 2) after beta-adrenergic blockade (propranolol, 2 mg/kg i.v.); 3) after vagal blockade (atropine, 2 mg/kg i.v.); 4) after vagal and beta-adrenergic blockade (atropine and propranolol, 2 mg/kg, i.v. each). At 5 weeks of age, BRS did not differ between the 3 strains (0.50 +/- 0.05, 0.69 +/- 0.10 and 0.62 +/- 0.09 ms/mmHg in LH, LN and LL rats respectively). In LN rats, BRS increased sharply between 5 and 9 weeks (1.25 +/- 0.12 ms/mmHg) and then remained stable until 70 weeks of age (1.19 +/- 0.14 ms/mmHg). Such an increase did not occur in LH rats and their BRS value was lower than that of LN and LL controls starting from 9 weeks of age. The vagal component of BRS was found to be more important than the sympathetic one in adult rats whatever the strain (80 p. 100 vs 20 p. 100).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)