Schwenke Daryl O
Department of Physiology, School of Biomedical Science, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Methods Mol Biol. 2025;2894:173-183. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-4342-6_15.
The accurate measurement of sympathetic nerve activity is essential for advancing knowledge related to the mechanisms that underpin sympathetic activation in diseased states, such as acute heart failure. Considering sympathetic outflow throughout the body is differentially modulated, the most reliable method of measuring sympathetic traffic to individual organs is by way of direct electrophysiological recording of nerve activity. However, the surgical approach of accessing, exposing, and isolating the sympathetic nerve of interest is technically demanding, especially in the small size of a standard laboratory rat, one of the most common models for measuring SNA. Moreover, preserving the health of the nerve while attaching it to electrodes for recording requires careful diligence. The complexity of recording from specifically the cardiac sympathetic nerve remains a significant challenge due to the difficulty of accessing the nerve within the thorax cavity. Here, we describe in detail the process of surgically isolating the cardiac sympathetic nerve activity in a rat for accurately recording and quantifying sympathetic nerve activity.
准确测量交感神经活动对于增进我们对疾病状态（如急性心力衰竭）下交感神经激活机制的认识至关重要。考虑到全身交感神经输出受到不同程度的调节，测量交感神经向各个器官传输的最可靠方法是通过直接电生理记录神经活动。然而，获取、暴露和分离感兴趣的交感神经的手术方法对技术要求很高，尤其是在标准实验大鼠体型较小的情况下，而大鼠是测量交感神经活动（SNA）最常用的模型之一。此外，在将神经连接到电极进行记录时，保持神经的健康需要格外小心。由于难以进入胸腔内的神经，专门记录心脏交感神经的复杂性仍然是一个重大挑战。在此，我们详细描述了在大鼠身上手术分离心脏交感神经活动以准确记录和量化交感神经活动的过程。
