Abstract
We previously reported that maternal separation (MS), a model of early life stress, lowers GFR but does not alter baseline blood pressure. Additional studies demonstrated that acute phenylephrine (PE)‐induced reduction in renal blood flow was attenuated in MS rats. Thus, we hypothesized that MS rats have a systemic and/or renal sympathetic activation basally. Male WKY rat pups were separated from their mothers for 3 hrs/day during the morning hours from day 2 to 14 of life. Male non‐separated littermates served as control rats. Experiments were performed in 12 week old rats. Ganglion blockade, mecamylamine (MECA, 2 mg/Kg i.p.), was administered to control and MS telemetry‐implanted rats. MAP was similar to baseline after 30 minutes of MECA in control rats (105±2 vs 101±2 mmHg, n=4); however, MAP was reduced significantly in MS rats (105±5 vs. 89±3 mmHg, p<0.05, n=4). Norephinephrine (NE) content (measured by ELISA) was increased in renal cortical tissue of MS rats compared to control rats (331±26 vs. 219±38 ng/g tissue, p<0.05, n=6–8). Similarly, NE content was increased in inner medulla of MS rats compared to control rats (20.2±1.8 vs. 9.4±1.5 ng/g tissue, p<0.05, n=4). These data indicate that MS induces an increase in basal renal sympathetic tone. We propose that renal adrenergic desensitization functions as a protective mechanism to maintain a normotensive blood pressure in the MS rats.
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