Spontaneous Hypertension Is Primarily the Result of Sympathetic Overactivity and Immunologic Dysfunction

AbstractOveractivity of the sympathetic nervous system and immunologic dysfunction have been shown to contribute to development and maintenance of hypertension in the Okamoto spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR). In this study, the combined effects of reduction in sympathetic activity and immunologic manipulation on spontaneous hypertension have been determined. Neonatal SHRs received sham implants or implants of thymic tissue from Wistar donor rats. In addition, the thymus-implanted SHRs underwent bilateral renal denervation when they were 6 weeks old. At the same time, the sham-implanted SHRs underwent sham renal denervation. The denervations or sham operations were repeated when the SHRs were 9, 12, 15, and 18 weeks old. Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats also underwent serial sham renal denervations. Tail-cuff pressure measurements indicated that approximately 75% of the chronic hypertension in the SHRs was prevented by the combination of thymic implants and renal denervations. Direct arterial pressure measureme...