Age-related weakening of baroreflex-mediated sympathetic activity in spontaneously hypertensive rats in response to blood pressure reduction.

Nicardipine, a dihydropyridine type calcium channel blocker, was infused into 4-, 6-, and 23-wk-old spontaneously hypertensive (SH) and age-matched normotensive Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats (under sodium thiobutabarbital anesthesia and ventilation, n = 4) through the left femoral vein, resulting in the reduction of blood pressure. In each rat, mean arterial blood pressure, heart rate, and the concentration of plasma catecholamines (CAs), norepinephrine (NE), and epinephrine (E) were concomitantly determined, and the correlations between these three variables were studied. During the infusion of nicardipine, the plasma concentration of CAs was measured with an automatic detection system in blood samples collected from the right femoral artery of each rat. The reduction in blood pressure induced by nicardipine brought about an increase in plasma CA levels. The blood pressure correlated well with the logarithm of plasma NE or E concentration according to the formula Y= -alpha log (X) + m (Y, blood pressure; X, concentration of plasma NE or E; a, slope; and m, intercept). The slopes (as) of 6-wk-old and 23-wk-old SH rats were significantly greater than those of aged-matched WKY rats, meaning that the increment in plasma CAs in response to a decrease in blood pressure was smaller in SH than in WKY rats of similar ages. However, no significant differences were found between the as of 4-wk-old SH and WKY rats. We conclude that the increment in the baroreflex-mediated sympathetic activity in response to a drop in blood pressure induced by nicardipine is similar or greater in prehypertensive SH than in normotensive WKY 4-wk-old rats, while the increment becomes smaller in SH rats with the onset of hypertension (6-wk-old rats), and is much less in fully hypertensive adult (23-wk-old) SH rats than in age-matched WKY rats. On the basis of these findings and previous data obtained by neurography, we conclude that plasma CAs can be used to evaluate baroreflex-mediated sympathetic activity countering the blood pressure reduction caused by calcium antagonists.