Abstract 84: Angiotensin II Type 1a Receptor in the Subfornical Organ is Essential for Blood Pressure Regulation and Hydromineral Effects in Mouse Models of Elevated Brain Renin-Angiotensin System Activity.

Abstract

Elevated brain renin-angiotensin system (RAS) activity is necessary to increase blood pressure in many animal models of hypertension. We tested the hypothesis that AT1A receptors (AT1AR) within the subfornical organ (SFO) are required for the phenotypes that result from an increased brain RAS. We examined the effect of SFO-targeted Cre-recombinase mediated ablation of AT1A in mice treated with DOCA-salt (deoxycorticosterone acetate, 50 mg s.c. + ad lib 0.15 M NaCl). Mice homozygous for a conditional allele of the endogenous AT1A gene (AT1ARflox) were administered an adenovirus encoding Cre-recombinase and eGFP (AdCre), or eGFP alone (AdGFP) into the lateral cerebral ventricle, then treated for 3 weeks with DOCA-salt. AdCre reduced DOCA-salt hypertension (AdGFP baseline: 108±3 mmHg; AdGFP pre-DOCA: 104±3; AdGFP post-DOCA: 136±6 vs AdCre baseline: 116±2; Adcre pre-DOCA: 109±3, Adre post-DOCA: 118±5; P≤0.01), polydipsia (AdGFP+DOCA: 20.6±2.1 mL/day; AdCre+DOCA: 11.6±1.1, P<0.05), and sodium intake (AdGFP+DOCA: 2.6±0.3 mEq/day; AdCre+DOCA: 1.8±0.2, P<0.05). AdCre reduced AT1AR mRNA in the SFO (0.4±0.3 fold of AdGFP), without significant effect in the paraventricular or arcuate nuclei, or cortex; this was paralleled by SFO-specific AT1AR genomic DNA recombination. AdCre also caused SFO-specific recombination in ROSA-TdTomato reporter mice. Complementing the DOCA-salt model, we also examined the effect of AT1AR ablation in the SFO of double-transgenic sRA mice. sRA mice exhibit life-long brain-specific angiotensin overproduction via expression of human angiotensinogen via its own promoter and neuron-specific expression of human renin via the synapsin promoter. In sRA mice bred onto the AT1A conditional genetic background, AdCre significantly attenuated the polydipsia (AdGFP: -0.2±2; AdCre: -9.7±2.6 mL/day) and sodium intake (AdGFP: +0.2±0.7; AdCre: -1.3±0.4 mEq/day). Blood pressure measures are in progress. Together, these data highlight the involvement of SFO AT1A receptors in blood pressure in DOCA-salt model and additionally in hydromineral balance in two different models of increased brain RAS activity.