Chronic sodium depletion suppresses the area postrema pressor pathway.

Sodium depletion in dogs is known to affect both the renin-angiotensin as well as the sympathetic nervous system. The effect of this dietary regime upon the area postrema pressor pathway, as evaluated by the cardiovascular responses to centrally acting angiotensin II, has not been determined previously. With this in mind, male mongrel dogs were maintained on either a normal or a sodium restricted diet supplemented with furosemide and dose-response curves for intravertebral and intravenous angiotensin II (range: 1-20 ng/kg/min) were obtained. Sodium depletion results in not only a blunted intravenous pressor response to angiotensin II but also the abolition of the centrally mediated pressor responses mediated by the area postrema. Because accumulating evidence indicates that in sodium depleted dogs sympathetic nerve activity is reduced while central noradrenergic inhibitory activity is increased the reduced effects of angiotensin II upon the central sympathetically mediated pressor response may in part be related to decreases in sympathetic nerve activity.