Involvement of bone marrow cells and neuroinflammation in hypertension.

Rationale: Microglial activation in autonomic brain regions is a hallmark of neuroinflammation in neurogenic hypertension. Despite evidence that an impaired sympathetic nerve activity supplying the bone marrow (BM) increases inflammatory cells and decreases angiogenic cells, little is known about the reciprocal impact of BM-derived inflammatory cells on neuroinflammation in hypertension.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that proinflammatory BM cells from hypertensive animals contribute to neuroinflammation and hypertension via a brain-BM interaction.