Arterial stiffness and the autonomic nervous system during the development of Zucker diabetic fatty rats.

Aim: This study aimed to investigate the role played by sympathovagal balance in arterial stiffness, a common feature of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.

Methods: We investigated the relationship between autonomic nervous system activity and arterial stiffness in Zucker diabetic fatty rats (ZDF: Gmi-fa/fa) and their age-matched controls (lean: ?/fa). Using simultaneous catheterization of the proximal and distal aorta, we measured intra-arterial blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), their variability (spectral analysis) and aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV) in a series of at least six conscious rats aged 6, 12, 18 and 24 weeks.

Motor and sensory nerve conduction velocities in Yucatan minipigs.

Motor and/or sensory conduction velocities are used to assess peripheral nervous system disorders. Although the miniature pig represents a model of choice for long-term pharmacological experimentation, no study has so far been reported on this model in relation to the measurement of nerve conduction velocities. We developed the present technique and applied it to 34 3-18-month-old Yucatan minipigs.

Cardiovascular vagosympathetic activity in rats with ventromedial hypothalamic obesity.

Objective: Rats with ventromedial hypothalamic lesion (VMH) are massively obese with endogenous hyperinsulinemia, insulin resistance, low sympathetic activity, and high parasympathetic activity, which are likely to induce hypertension. The goal was to follow in this model the long-term hemodynamic changes and to investigate the role of autonomic nervous system and insulin resistance in these changes.

Research Methods And Procedures: Heart rate and blood pressure were monitored for 12 weeks after operation using a telemetric system in VMH and sham rats.

In vivo quantification and parametric images of the cardiac beta-adrenergic receptor density.

Unlabelled: Previous studies showed that the in vivo concentration of beta-adrenergic receptor sites can be estimated by PET using (-)-4-((S)-3-tert-butylamino-2-hydroxypropoxy)-1,3-dihydrobenzoimidazol-2-one (CGP 12177), a hydrophilic ligand. A graphic method was previously proposed and used by several groups. However, this approach was not completely validated.

[Hemodynamic consequences of endogenous hyperinsulinism in obese rats with lesions of the ventromedial hypothalamus].

The rat with ventromedian hypothalamus lesions (VMH) is characterized by massive obesity, hyperinsulinemia, increase in parasympathetic tonus and sympathetic depression. The aim of this study was to examine in this model the hemodynamic changes and the baroreflex response and to compare the data with the evaluation of beta adrenergic sensitivity. In VMH rats and Sham operated rats hemodynamic parameters were followed until 8 weeks after operation.