Abstract 104: Dynamic Autoregulation of Glomerular Capillary Pressure

Abstract

It is generally accepted that renal blood flow (RBF) autoregulation is mediated by myogenic and tubuloglomerular feedback responses acting on the pre-glomerular resistance. If this is so, then autoregulation of RBF and glomerular capillary pressure (PGC) should change in the same direction throughout an autoregulatory step response. We computed autoregulatory step responses from time series recordings of arterial blood pressure (BP) and RBF (Transonics) blood flow or tubular stop-flow pressure (micropuncture), which is a surrogate for PGC in Wistar-Froemter rats fed for one week on low or high salt diets (n=6-10 ). Autoregulatory step responses were generated from time series by an algorithm that treats BP as a leading indicator of RBF or PGC and uses the projection theorem to solve for the impulse response which is integrated to obtain the step response. Step responses shown in the figure represent the uncompensated changes in RBF and PGC (mean + SEM) following a 1 mmHg BP step. The data clearly reveal that the time courses of RBF and PGC differ such that changes in RBF cannot predict changes in PGC. This implies that the renal hemodynamic response to a blood pressure disturbance is not confined to the pre-glomerular resistance. Furthermore, the participation of post-glomerular resistance in the autoregulatory response is sensitive to dietary salt such that PGC is more sensitive to BP on low salt diet.