Abstract
Intermittent hypoxia causes a persistent increase in sympathetic nerve activity (SNA), which progresses to hypertension in conditions such as obstructive sleep apnea. Orexins (A and B) are hypothalamic neurotransmitters with arousal-promoting and sympathoexcitatory effects. We investigated whether the sustained elevation of SNA, termed sympathetic long-term facilitation, after acute intermittent hypoxia (AIH) is caused by endogenous orexin acting on spinal sympathetic preganglionic neurons. The role of orexin in the increased SNA response to AIH was investigated in urethane-anesthetized, vagotomized, and artificially ventilated Sprague-Dawley rats (n = 58). A spinally infused subthreshold dose of orexin-A (intermittent; 10 pmol × 10) produced long-term enhancement in SNA (41.4% ± 6.9%) from baseline. This phenomenon was not produced by the same dose of orexin-A administered as a bolus intrathecal infusion (100 pmol; 7.3% ± 2.3%). The dual orexin receptor blocker, Almorexant, attenuated the effect of sympathetic long-term facilitation generated by intermittent orexin-A (20.7% ± 4.5% for Almorexant at 30 mg∙kg−1 and 18.5% ± 1.2% for 75 mg∙kg−1), but not in AIH. The peripheral chemoreflex sympathoexcitatory response to hypoxia was greatly enhanced by intermittent orexin-A and AIH. In both cases, the sympathetic chemoreflex sensitization was reduced by Almorexant. Taken together, spinally acting orexin-A is mechanistically sufficient to evoke sympathetic long-term facilitation. However, AIH-induced sympathetic long-term facilitation appears to rely on mechanisms that are independent of orexin neurotransmission. Our findings further reveal that the activation of spinal orexin receptors is critical to enhance peripheral chemoreceptor responses to hypoxia after AIH.
Footnotes
- Received April 15, 2016.
- Accepted July 5, 2016.
This work was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia Fellowship [Grant 1024489 (to P.M.P.), and NHMRC Project Grants 1065485, 1082215] and the Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award [Grant DE120100992] (to M.M.J.F.), and the Heart Research Institute. S.J.K. is supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award [APA SC0042] and a Heart Research Institute scholarship.
- Copyright © 2016 by The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
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