Ganglionic Long-Term Potentiation in Prehypertensive and Hypertensive Stages of Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats Depends on GABA Modulation.

Ganglionic Long-Term Potentiation in Prehypertensive and Hypertensive Stages of Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats Depends on GABA Modulation. Neural Plast. 2019;2019:7437894 Authors: Martínez LA, Cifuentes F, Morales MA Abstract The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) regulates body functions in normal and pathological conditions and is characterized by the presence of a neuroplastic phenomenon, termed ganglionic long-term potentiation (gLTP). In hypertension, either in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) or in humans, sympathetic hyperfunction, such as elevated SNS outflow and changes in synaptic plasticity have been described. Because enhanced SNS outflow is detected in the hypertensive stage and, more importantly, in the prehypertensive phase of SHR, here we explored whether synaptic plasticity, particularly gLTP, was modified in the superior cervical ganglia (SCG) of prehypertensive SHR. Furthermore, considering that GABA modulates sympathetic synaptic transmission and gLTP in Wistar rats, we studied whether GABA might modulate gLTP expression in SHR. We characterized gLTP in the SCG of young prehypertensive 6-week-old (wo) and adult hypertensive (12 wo) SHR and in the SCG of Wistar Kyoto (WKy) normotensive control rats of the same ages. We found that gLTP was expressed in 6 wo SHR, but not in 12 wo rats. By contrast, in WKy, gLTP was expressed in 12 wo, but not in 6 wo rats. We also found that gLTP depends on GABA modula...
Source: Neural Plasticity - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Neural Plast Source Type: research