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Baroreflex functionality in the eye of diffusion tensor imaging
- Source :
- The Journal of Physiology. 597:41-55
- Publication Year :
- 2018
- Publisher :
- Wiley, 2018.
-
Abstract
- By applying diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) as a physiological tool to evaluate changes in functional connectivity between key brainstem nuclei in the baroreflex neural circuits of mice and rats, recent work has revealed several hitherto unidentified phenomena regarding baroreflex functionality. (1) The presence of robust functional connectivity between nucleus tractus solitarii (NTS) and nucleus ambiguus (NA) or rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) offers a holistic view on the moment-to-moment modus operandi of the cardiac vagal baroreflex or baroreflex-mediated sympathetic vasomotor tone. (2) Under pathophysiological conditions (e.g. neurogenic hypertension), the disruption of functional connectivity between key nuclei in the baroreflex circuits is reversible. However, fatality ensues on progression from pathophysiological to pathological conditions (e.g. hepatic encephalopathy) when the functional connectivity between NTS and NA or RVLM is irreversibly severed. (3) The absence of functional connectivity between the NTS and caudal ventrolateral medulla (CVLM) necessitates partial rewiring of the classical neural circuit that includes CVLM as an inhibitory intermediate between the NTS and RVLM. (4) Sustained functional connectivity between the NTS and NA is responsible for the vital period between brain death and the inevitable cardiac death. (5) Reduced functional connectivity between the NTS and RVLM or NA points to inherent anomalous baroreflex functionality in floxed and Cre-Lox mice. (6) Disrupted NTS-NA functional connectivity in Flk-1 (VEGFR2) deficient mice offers an explanation for the hypertensive side-effect of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapy (anti-VEGF) therapy. These newly identified baroreflex functionalities revealed by DTI bear clinical and therapeutic implications.
- Subjects :
- 0301 basic medicine
Physiology
Baroreflex
Inhibitory postsynaptic potential
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Neural Pathways
Biological neural network
Animals
Humans
Medicine
Medulla
Nucleus ambiguus
business.industry
Brain
Neurogenic hypertension
Rostral ventrolateral medulla
Death
Diffusion Tensor Imaging
030104 developmental biology
nervous system
Topical Reviews
cardiovascular system
Brainstem
business
Neuroscience
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Brain Stem
circulatory and respiratory physiology
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 14697793 and 00223751
- Volume :
- 597
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- The Journal of Physiology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....bb315b8ceff0fa80ed9514a55414d7fc