New Method for Imaging Innervation of the Renal Preglomerular Vasculature. Alterations in Hypertensive Rats

Objective: To develop a new method for viewing adrenergic innervation along renal preglomerular vessels; to assess nerve densities and vascular lesions along arcuate arteries (ArcA), arcuate arterial branches (ArcB), and interlobular arteries (ILA) in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and in angiotensin II (AngII) and in NG-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (l-NAME) hypertensive rats. Methods: Preglomerular vasculatures were isolated after HCl maceration and were immunostained against synaptophysin, a membrane protein of synaptic vesicles. Lesions were stained with Sudan black. Longitudinal nerve densities and relative frequencies of ArcA, ArcB, and ILA endowed with sudanophilic lesions were assessed separately. Results: Synaptophysin immunostaining revealed the vascular neural plexus. Nerves were adrenergic, as the plexus was destroyed by treatment with 6-hydroxy dopamine. Vascular lesions were not seen in SHR, and increased nerve density was observed along ArcA and ILA. In l-NAME- and AngII-hypertensive rats, vascular lesions affected predominantly ArcB and ILA, and nerve density was reduced by 12% and 28% (ArcA), 37% and 31% (ArcB), and by 55% and 34% (ILA), respectively, versus normotensive controls. Endothelin-1 receptor blockade did not affect AngII-induced hypertension but prevented both lesion development and reduction of density of the vascular neural plexus. Conclusions: The method we have devised provides a direct en face view of the vascular adrenergic innervation of isolated preglomerular vasculature. Measurements in hypertensive rat models suggest a link between vascular lesions and reduction in nerve density in hypertension. Endothelin-1 likely plays a key role in mediating both vascular injury and altered vascular nerve density in hypertension.