Sympathetic transduction of blood pressure during graded lower body negative pressure

Abstract

IntroductionCross‐sectional work has demonstrated that participants with high resting muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) have lower resting sympathetic transduction of blood pressure (BP), and a larger proportion of sympathetic bursts firing above the BP set‐point (or mean BP). However, to date, most of these observations have been evaluated between participants with different levels of resting MSNA. The objective of the current study is to evaluate the influence of acute elevations in MSNA on sympathetic transduction of BP in young healthy adults using graded lower body negative pressure (LBNP). We hypothesize that sympathetic transduction will decrease during acute elevations in MSNA due to an increased proportion of MSNA bursts firing above the BP set‐point.MethodsTen (1 female) young healthy participants underwent 8 minutes of quiet rest, followed by a graded LBNP protocol consisting of 8‐minute stages at ‐10, ‐20, and ‐30mmHg. Beat‐to‐beat heart rate and BP were quantified using single‐lead electrocardiography and finger photoplethysmography, respectively, while MSNA was quantified using fibular nerve microneurography. Sympathetic transduction was quantified in the time (signal‐averaging) and frequency (MSNA‐diastolic BP low frequency [LF: 0.04‐0.15 Hz] transfer function magnitude) domains. Tertiles of diastolic BP were determined for each participant, and the proportion of MSNA bursts firings within each BP tertile were quantified.ResultsMSNA burst frequency increased progressively during graded LBNP (from 15±7 to 17±7, 22±7, and 27±9 bursts/min; P<0.01), while the proportion of MSNA bursts firing in the highest BP tertile remained stable (19±7, 18±9, 19±9, 19±7 %; P=0.72). Sympathetic transduction of BP was unchanged during LBNP (from 2.1±1.1 to 2.3±1.5, 2.1±1.2, and 2.0±1.1 mmHg; P=0.51), while the BP responses to non‐burst cardiac cycles decreased progressively (from ‐0.7±0.5 to ‐0.9±0.5, ‐1.0±0.4, and ‐1.4±0.7 mmHg; P<0.01). The difference between burst and non‐burst cardiac cycles (from 2.8±1.4 to 3.2±1.9, 3.1±1.5, and 3.4±1.3 mmHg; P=0.26) and the MSNA‐diastolic BP transfer function magnitude (from 0.14±0.09 to 0.14±0.06, 0.14±0.06, and 0.13±0.07 au/mmHg; P=0.40) were also unchanged during LBNP. Lastly, the change in the proportion of MSNA bursts firing in the largest BP tertile was associated with the change in signal‐averaged sympathetic transduction across each stage of LBNP (r= ‐0.79, ‐0.78, ‐0.81; P≤0.01).ConclusionSympathetic transduction of diastolic BP is unchanged during graded LBNP due to the heterogenous inter‐individual responses in the gating of bursts to diastolic BP. The proportion of bursts firing at high BPs are associated with changes in sympathetic transduction of BP. The determinants of gating MSNA burst occurrence by the arterial baroreflex and its capacity for modulation warrant further study.