Hypertension affects 1 in 3 adults and is the single greatest risk factor for premature death. Salt-sensitive hypertension occurs in approximately 50% of hypertensive patients and results in a 3-fold increase in the risk of adverse cardiovascular events. However, the pathophysiology of salt-sensitive hypertension remains to be fully elucidated. There has been increased interest in the interaction between the sympathetic nervous system and the kidney and how that interaction mediates sodium excretion to drive the development of salt-sensitivity. Previous studies show that sympathetic over-activity increases expression of the sodium chloride cotransporter (NCC) resulting in increased NCC-mediated sodium reabsorption, and the development of salt-sensitive hypertension. In this thesis, I show the effect of increased norepinephrine (NE) and high salt intake in salt-resistant vs. salt-sensitive rat phenotypes on blood pressure regulation, NCC activity, and the adrenoreceptor-mediated regulatory kinase network signal transduction pathway. A high salt diet 1) exacerbates NE-induced hypertension in salt-resistant Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats and 2) results in hypertension in Dahl salt-sensitive (DSS) rats. In contrast to salt-resistant phenotypes (SD & Dahl salt-resistant), dietary sodium-evoked suppression of NCC expression and activity is prevented in salt-sensitive rats (SD-NE infusion & DSS) - I show that this occurs through a failure of a high salt intake to suppress renal OxSR1, SPAK, and WNK1 (NCC regulatory proteins). I demonstrate that α1-adrenoreceptors are responsible for mediating the salt-sensitive component of hypertension and restore dietary sodium-evoked suppression of the NCC via a predominant OxSR1 pathway. Chronic β-adrenoreceptor antagonism significantly reduces blood pressure in NE-mediated hypertension. How the body senses salt remains unknown, but my data show that selective removal of the afferent renal nerves prevents dietary sodium-evoked suppression of NCC expression and activity resulting in salt-sensitive hypertension, suggesting that the afferent renal nerves play an important role as a sodium-sensing mechanism. Overall, these data demonstrate that attenuated afferent renal nerve feedback drives renal efferent nerve release of NE to prevent the downregulation of the NCC via an α1-adrenergic receptor-gated WNK1-OxSR1 signal transduction pathway to evoke the development of salt-sensitive hypertension.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/16730 |
| Date | 15 June 2016 |
| Creators | Walsh, Kathryn |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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