Hypertension: its effect on the stimulated release of dopamine-beta-hydroxylase in the rat.

Plasma dopamine-beta-hydroxylase (DBH) concentrations have been postulated as providing an index of sympathetic nerve activity. Using a microspectrophotometric assay system, plasma DBH concentrations have been measured in emergent blood from autoperfused heart, spleen and mesentery of normotensive, deoxycorticosterone (doca)/NaCl-treated, Goldblatt (1 kidney) renal and spontaneously hypertensive rats following sympathetic nerve outflow stimulation. Changes in plasma DBH concentrations as a result of sympathetic nerve outflow stimulation rates of 1--25 Hz for the mesentery and spleen and 1--4 Hz for the heart, were found to be frequency-dependent in all groups. Significantly greater amounts of DBH were found in the perfusate from the spleen (1--25 Hz) and mesentery (3--25 Hz) but not the heart (0.5--4Hz) of renal hypertensive rats compared with normotensive controls. Significantly greater concentrations of DBH were released from the spleen but not the mesentery in all hypertensive groups following high stimulation frequencies of 12 and 25 Hz. It is concluded that there is a relation between plasma DBH concentrations and sympathetic nerve activity. Furthermore, greater amounts of the enzyme are released from the spleen and mesentery of chronic renal hypertensive rats following sympathetic nerve stimulation.