High salt diet sensitizes cardiopulmonary baroreflexes in dahl salt-resistant rats

Abstract

Compared with Dahl salt-resistant (R) rats, Dahl salt-sensitive (S) rats on a low salt diet have impaired cardiopulmonary baroreflex control of sympathetic nerve activity. The purpose of this study was to examine the sensitivity of cardiopulmonary baroreflex function in both strains of Dahl rats when they are challenged with a high salt diet. We studied Dahl R and S rats after 6 weeks of low and high salt diets. To assess cardiopulmonary baroreflex function, we measured decreases in splanchnic sympathetic nerve activity produced by increases in left ventricular end-diastolic pressure during graded volume expansion (dextran 75) after bilateral sinoaortic denervation. A given amount of infused volume produced comparable increases in left ventricular end-diastolic pressure in Dahl R rats on low and high salt diets but significantly greater decreases in sympathetic nerve activity in the high salt group than in the low salt group. Thus, the high salt diet augmented the sympathoinhibitory response to volume expansion in the Dahl R rats. In contrast, among the Dahl S rats equivalent increases in left ventricular end-diastolic pressure during volume expansion produced smaller sympathoinhibitory responses in the high salt group than in the low salt group. The gain of the cardiopulmonary baroreflex, expressed as the percentage decrease in sympathetic nerve activity per mm Hg increase in left ventricular end-diastolic pressure, was significantly increased by a high salt diet in Dahl R rats but tended to be decreased by a high salt diet in Dahl S rats. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that a high salt diet sensitizes the cardiopulmonary baroreflex in Dahl R rats but not in Dahl S rats. We suggest that this augmentation in the reflex restraint of sympathetic neural outflow in Dahl R rats on a high salt diet may exert a protective effect against the development of salt-induced hypertension. Conversely, the lack of this compensatory augmentation in baroreflex function in Dahl S rats might contribute to salt sensitivity. © 1986 American Heart Association, Inc.