Renal Medullary Oxygenation Decreases in a Dose‐Dependent Manner with Graded Lower Body Negative Pressure in Healthy Young Adults

Abstract

BackgroundIncrease in sympathetic nerve activity (SNA) evokes a renal vasoconstrictor response that is powerfully opposed by autoregulatory influences. In the renal medulla, increases in SNA serve to increase Na+/K+‐ATPase activity (an oxygen dependent process) in the distal tubule, a process contributing to salt and water retention. In this report, we engaged SNA with lower body negative pressure (LBNP) as we employed magnetic resonance imaging to examine an index of renal medullary oxygenation, T2*. At a separate time we applied LBNP as we measured changes in renal blood flow velocity. This is an index that largely reflects changes in renal cortical blood flow.MethodsThirteen healthy (mean age 28 ± 1 yr) men (n = 7) and women (n = 6) participated in one or both of the experimental visits. Graded negative pressure (−10, −20, and −30 mmHg) was applied during 2 visits; visit 1 was for Doppler and visit 2 for MRI. Blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) were also measured at baseline and at each stage of LBNP and recovery. RBV was obtained in all 13 subjects while T2* was obtained in 8 of 13 subjects.ResultsLBNP −30 mmHg led to a lower T2* (−0.65 ± 0.14 ms; P < 0.001). RBV decreased and renal vascular resistance (RVR) increased at −30 mmHg (ΔRBV −7.44 ± 3.87 cm/s, P = 0.041; ΔRVR arbitrary units 0.28 ± 0.11, P = 0.028). During recovery, T2* remained below baseline for the first and the second minutes of the recovery.ConclusionsThese data suggest that −30 mmHg LBNP leads to renal vasoconstriction and medullary deoxygenation. We suspect that changes in T2* are due to a sympathetically mediated, oxygen requiring, accentuation of Na/K ATP activity in the distal tubule. We postulate that this leads to salt and water retention as the SNS is engaged.Support or Funding InformationCommonwealth Universal Research Enhancement Program (CURE); P01 HL134609 (Sinoway)This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.