Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio, United States.
J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States.
Physiol Genomics. 2023 Dec 1;55(12):606-617. doi: 10.1152/physiolgenomics.00016.2023. Epub 2023 Sep 25.
Augmented vagal signaling may be therapeutic in hypertension. Most studies to date have used stimulation of the cervical vagal branches. Here, we investigated the effects of chronic intermittent electric stimulation of the ventral subdiaphragmatic vagal nerve branch (sdVNS) on long-term blood pressure, immune markers, and gut microbiota in the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR), a rodent model of hypertension characterized by vagal dysfunction, gut dysbiosis, and low-grade inflammation. We evaluated the effects of sdVNS on transcriptional networks in the nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS), a major cardioregulatory brain region with direct gut vagal projections. Male juvenile SHRs were implanted with radiotelemetry transmitters and vagal nerve cuffs for chronic intermittent electric sdVNS, applied three times per day for 7 consecutive weeks followed by 1 wk of no stimulation. Blood pressure was measured once a week using telemetry in the sdVNS group as well as age-matched sham-stimulated SHR controls. At the endpoint, colonic and circulating inflammatory markers, corticosterone, and circulating catecholamines were investigated. Bacterial 16 s sequencing measured gut bacterial abundance and composition. RNA sequencing evaluated the effects of sdVNS on transcriptional networks in the NTS. SHRs that received sdVNS exhibited attenuated development of hypertension compared with sham animals. No changes in peripheral inflammatory markers, corticosterone, or catecholamines and no major differences in gut bacterial diversity and composition were observed following sdVNS, apart from decreased abundance of bacterium detected in sdVNS SHRs compared with sham animals. RNA sequencing revealed significant sdVNS-dependent modulation of select NTS transcriptional networks, including catecholaminergic and corticosteroid networks. We show that stimulation of the ventral subdiaphragmatic vagal nerve branch may be a promising potential approach to treating hypertension. The data are especially encouraging given that rodents received only 30 min per day of intermittent stimulation therapy and in view of the potential of long-term blood pressure effects that are not stimulus-locked.
增强迷走神经信号可能对高血压具有治疗作用。迄今为止,大多数研究都使用颈迷走神经分支刺激。在这里,我们研究了慢性间断电刺激膈下迷走神经分支(sdVNS)对自发性高血压大鼠(SHR)的长期血压、免疫标志物和肠道微生物群的影响,SHR 是一种以迷走神经功能障碍、肠道菌群失调和低度炎症为特征的高血压啮齿动物模型。我们评估了 sdVNS 对孤束核(NTS)转录网络的影响,NTS 是一个主要的心脏调节脑区,具有直接的肠道迷走神经投射。雄性幼年 SHR 接受放射性遥测发射器和迷走神经袖带植入,用于慢性间断电 sdVNS,每天应用 3 次,连续 7 周,然后不刺激 1 周。在 sdVNS 组和年龄匹配的假刺激 SHR 对照组中,每周通过遥测测量一次血压。在终点时,研究了结肠和循环炎症标志物、皮质酮和循环儿茶酚胺。16S 测序测量了肠道细菌的丰度和组成。RNA 测序评估了 sdVNS 对 NTS 转录网络的影响。与假刺激动物相比,接受 sdVNS 的 SHR 表现出高血压发展的减弱。除了 sdVNS SHR 中检测到的细菌丰度降低外,sdVNS 后外周炎症标志物、皮质酮或儿茶酚胺没有变化,肠道细菌多样性和组成也没有大的差异。RNA 测序显示,NTS 中特定转录网络的 sdVNS 依赖性调节显著,包括儿茶酚胺能和皮质酮网络。我们表明,刺激膈下迷走神经分支可能是治疗高血压的一种很有前途的潜在方法。鉴于啮齿动物每天只接受 30 分钟的间断刺激治疗,并且考虑到不受刺激锁定的长期血压效应的潜力,这些数据尤其令人鼓舞。
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