Selective antagonism of humoral versus neural vasoconstrictor responses by nisoldipine.

The effects of nisoldipine administration on vascular reactivity to humoral and neural vasoconstrictor stimuli were examined in the intact rat. For these experiments, rats were instrumented with miniaturized pulsed Doppler flow probes to allow continuous measurement of renal, mesenteric, and hindquarters blood flow. In conscious and anesthetized rats, intravenous doses of angiotensin II (75 and 150 ng/kg), norepinephrine (0.6 and 1.2 microgram/kg), and epinephrine (0.6 and 1.2 microgram/kg) caused dose-dependent increases in arterial pressure and renal and mesenteric vascular resistance. Nisoldipine (0.7 microgram/min) administration significantly attenuated (p less than 0.05) the pressor and regional vasoconstrictor actions of all three circulating pressor agents; however, nisoldipine infusion had little effect on neurally mediated regional vasoconstrictor responses elicited by electrical stimulation of the posterior hypothalamus or greater splanchnic nerve. These data indicate that nisoldipine depressed vascular responsiveness to humoral vasoconstrictor agents, while neural vasoconstrictor responses were unaffected. Thus nisoldipine appears to exert preferential antagonistic effects on humoral rather than on neural vasoconstrictor stimuli.

Central nervous system action of angiotensin during onset of renal hypertension in awake rats.

The increase in arterial pressure and vascular resistance during acute unilateral renal artery stenosis (RSt) in conscious rats is, in part, dependent on elevated neurogenic vascular tone produced by an indirect neural interaction of angiotensin II (ANG II) with the sympathetic nervous system. The present experiments examined whether this interaction occurs within the central nervous system. Conscious rats that had been chronically instrumented with miniaturized Doppler flow probes for measurement of regional vascular resistance were subjected to a 50% reduction in unilateral renal flow with an implanted pneumatic occluder. Arterial pressure increased by 35% after 60 min of RSt. In animals in which the pressor response to intracerebroventricular (icv) ANG II had been eliminated by prior surgical interruption of the "ANG II pressor pathway" in the anterior hypothalamus, the increase in blood pressure following RSt was attenuated by 44% (P less than 0.01). In a second series, a central action of ANG II during acute renal hypertension (RH) was assessed by central ANG II receptor blockade with icv saralasin. Unlike normotensive controls, acutely RH animals responded to saralasin with significant (P less than 0.01) decreases in arterial pressure (-32%) and hindquarters (-26%) and contralateral renal (-9%) resistance. These changes were accentuated (-57% decrease in pressure) in animals made areflexic by prior sinoaortic baroreceptor denervation. Thus activation of the sympathetic nervous system during the early high-renin phase of RH depends significantly on a central action of ANG II. This mechanism may account for some 40-50% of the pressure increase following acute RSt.