ABSTRACT
Mechanical and metabolic signals arising during skeletal muscle contraction reflexly increase sympathetic nerve activity and blood pressure (i.e., the exercise pressor reflex). In a rat model of simulated peripheral artery disease in which a femoral artery is chronically (~72 h) ligated, the mechanically sensitive component of the exercise pressor reflex during 1-Hz dynamic contraction is exaggerated compared with that found in normal rats. Whether this is due to an enhanced acute sensitization of mechanoreceptors by metabolites produced during contraction or involves a chronic sensitization of mechanoreceptors is unknown. To investigate this issue, in decerebrate, unanesthetized rats, we tested the hypothesis that the increases in mean arterial blood pressure and renal sympathetic nerve activity during 1-Hz dynamic stretch are larger when evoked from a previously "ligated" hindlimb compared with those evoked from the contralateral "freely perfused" hindlimb. Dynamic stretch provided a mechanical stimulus in the absence of contraction-induced metabolite production that closely replicated the pattern of the mechanical stimulus present during dynamic contraction. We found that the increases in mean arterial blood pressure (freely perfused: 14 ± 1 and ligated: 23 ± 3 mmHg, P = 0.02) and renal sympathetic nerve activity were significantly greater during dynamic stretch of the ligated hindlimb compared with the increases during dynamic stretch of the freely perfused hindlimb. These findings suggest that the exaggerated mechanically sensitive component of the exercise pressor reflex found during dynamic muscle contraction in this rat model of simulated peripheral artery disease involves a chronic sensitizing effect of ligation on muscle mechanoreceptors and cannot be attributed solely to acute contraction-induced metabolite sensitization. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We found that the pressor and sympathetic nerve responses during dynamic stretch were exaggerated in rats with a ligated femoral artery (a model of peripheral artery disease). Our findings provide mechanistic insights into the exaggerated exercise pressor reflex in this model and may have important implications for peripheral artery disease patients.
Subject(s)
Arterial Pressure , Femoral Artery/surgery , Kidney/innervation , Muscle Contraction , Muscle Spindles/metabolism , Muscle, Skeletal/blood supply , Muscle, Skeletal/innervation , Peripheral Arterial Disease/metabolism , Sympathetic Nervous System/physiopathology , Animals , Decerebrate State , Disease Models, Animal , Femoral Artery/physiopathology , Hindlimb , Ligation , Male , Peripheral Arterial Disease/physiopathology , Rats, Sprague-Dawley , Reflex , Time FactorsABSTRACT
Hindlimb skeletal muscle stretch (i.e., selective activation of the muscle mechanoreflex) in decerebrate rats evokes reflex increases in blood pressure and sympathetic nerve activity. Bradykinin has been found to sensitize mechanogated channels through a bradykinin B2 receptor-dependent mechanism. Moreover, bradykinin B2 receptor expression on sensory neurons is increased following chronic femoral artery ligation in the rat (a model of simulated peripheral artery disease). We tested the hypothesis that injection of bradykinin into the arterial supply of a hindlimb in decerebrate, unanesthetized rats would acutely augment (i.e., sensitize) the increase in blood pressure and renal sympathetic nerve activity during hindlimb muscle stretch to a greater extent in rats with a ligated femoral artery than in rats with a freely perfused femoral artery. The pressor response during static hindlimb muscle stretch was compared before and after hindlimb arterial injection of 0.5 µg of bradykinin. Injection of bradykinin increased blood pressure to a greater extent in "ligated" (n = 10) than "freely perfused" (n = 10) rats. The increase in blood pressure during hindlimb muscle stretch, however, was not different before vs. after bradykinin injection in freely perfused (14 ± 2 and 15 ± 2 mmHg for pre- and post-bradykinin, respectively, P = 0.62) or ligated (15 ± 3 and 14 ± 2 mmHg for pre- and post-bradykinin, respectively, P = 0.80) rats. Likewise, the increase in renal sympathetic nerve activity during stretch was not different before vs. after bradykinin injection in either group of rats. We conclude that bradykinin did not acutely sensitize the pressor response during hindlimb skeletal muscle stretch in freely perfused or ligated decerebrate rats.
