Low birth weight humans often exhibit hypertension during adulthood. Studying the offspring of rat dams fed a maternal low-protein diet is one model frequently used to study the mechanisms of low birth weight-related hypertension. It remains unclear whether this model replicates key clinical findings of hypertension and increased blood pressure responsiveness to stress or high-salt diet. We measured blood pressure via radiotelemetry in 13-wk-old male offspring of maternal normal- and low-protein dams. Neither group exhibited hypertension at baseline; however, 1 h of restraint was accompanied by a significantly greater blood pressure response in low-protein compared with normal-protein offspring. To enhance the effect of a high-salt diet on blood pressure, normal- and low-protein offspring underwent right uninephrectomy, while controls underwent sham surgery. After 5 weeks on a high-salt diet (4% NaCl), mean arterial pressure in the Low-Protein+Sham offspring was elevated by 6 +/- 2 mmHg (P < 0.05 vs. baseline), while it remained unchanged in the normal-protein offspring. In the two uninephrectomized groups, blood pressure increased further, but was of similar magnitude. Glomerular filtration rate in the low-protein uninephrectomized offspring was 50% less than that in normal-protein offspring with intact kidneys. These data indicate that, while male low-protein offspring are not hypertensive during young adulthood, their blood pressure is hyperresponsive to restraint stress and is salt sensitive, and their glomerular filtration rate is more sensitive to hypertension-causing insults. Collectively, these may predispose for the development of hypertension later in life.
Severed adult neurones, which are capable of regrowth, encounter different microenvironments from those encountered during development. Moreover, adult neurones may respond in a different manner from developing neurones to the same environmental cues. Thus, the recovery of the integrative and transmission capabilities (which depend on the neuronal architecture, passive and active membrane properties, and synaptic receptor distribution) by a regenerating adult neurone may not be complete. In the present review, we examine several aspects of the outcome of the interaction between the microenvironment and regrowing neurones using the cockroach giant interneurones (GINs) as a model system. We demonstrate that whereas extrinsic cues govern the morphological redifferentiation and distribution of synaptic receptors, the distribution of voltage-dependent Ca2+ channels is to a large extent determined by intrinsic factors. The pathway of regrowth and the architecture of regenerating GINs were studied by examination of intracellularly stained fibres. The environments provided by the connectives and ganglia are different. The elongating sprouts in the connective appeared as smooth cylinders. Within the ganglionic domain, the main longitudinal sprouts emitted neurites which extended and branched into the neuropile. The local cues for branching of neurites were eliminated by freezing and thawing of the ganglia prior to the arrival of the growing tips. The failure to extend neurites under these conditions is attributed to the elimination of extrinsic signals for morphological redifferentiation of the fibres, since the same fibres emit neurites in anterior ganglia which have not been subjected to freezing and thawing. The distribution of acetylcholine receptors (AChRs) on the GINs was mapped by ionophoretic application of ACh. In both the intact and regenerating GINs receptors were located only on the neurites. Freezing and thawing of a ganglion eliminated the local signals for insertion and/or activation of AChRs on the neurites. Thus, both the morphological redifferentiation and the distribution of AChRs are affected by the microenvironment. Voltage-dependent Ca2+ channels were detected after intracellular injection of tetraethylammonium into the GIN and in the presence of tetrodotoxin (TTX) and Ba2+ in the extracellular space. The regrowing axon tips always revealed large barium action potentials independent of the CNS microenvironment. This observation is consistent with the hypothesis that Ca2+ plays an important role in the growth process. However, increased Ba2+ responsiveness was also observed in axonal segments proximal to the region of neuronal extension.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Neuronal interactions mediated by alteration of the extracellular K+ concentration [K+]o occur between populations as well as among single neurones in very restricted regions. The interactions mediated by K+ ions may range from low efficacy ones (in which the effects of increased [K+]o around the non-active cells can be recorded only after massive activity of a large population of neurones) to very effective interactions (in which a single action potential in a neurone is sufficient to produce a depolarization of several mV in a second one). Such efficient K+-mediated interactions cannot be unequivocally distinguished by shape, amplitude or time course from postsynaptic responses induced by chemical or electrotonic synapses. We review here experiments which demonstrate various levels of interactions mediated by changes in potassium ion concentration. The giant axons (Gax) and non-giant axons from the central nervous system of the cockroach Periplaneta americana were used. The types of interactions discussed are: pathological interactions among populations of neurones induced by the convulsant drug picrotoxin; restricted and limited interactions which are the consequence of the combination of the special geometry of Gaxs and increases in extracellular K+; and finally, local and efficient interactions among Gaxs which are postulated to be mediated by K+ ions. The experiments described in this review, as well as others, demonstrate that the extracellular spaces in the CNS serve as predetermined pathways for K+-mediated neuronal communication. When the extracellular space between two adjacent neurones is very small, the K+-mediated interaction may resemble the PSPs of chemical or electrotonic synapses. It is possible that because of this resemblance, other K+-mediated interactions in the CNS have not been identified as such.
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