[Renal sympathetic denervation can significantly reduce blood pressure and improve arterial stiffness in hypertensive beagles].

Objective: To investigate the effect of renal sympathetic denervation (RDN) on blood pressure and arterial stiffness in hypertensive beagles and explore the underlying mechanism.

Methods: Sixteen beagles were randomly divided into RDN group (=8, fed with a high-salt high-fat diet to establish models of hypertension and treated with RDN), sham-operated group (=4, fed with a high-salt high-fat diet to induce hypertension but only examined with renal arteriography) and control group (=4, fed with formula dog food). The changes in blood pressure, arterial stiffness, endothelial function, and sympathetic activity were compared among the 3 groups and correlation analysis was performed.

Results: All the animal models of hypertension were established successfully in the beagles. At 3 months after the RDN, the changes in systolic blood pressure (SBP) differed significantly among the 3 groups (=0.006), and the reduction in SBP was significantly greater in RDN group than in the other two groups ( < 0.05). The variations of diastolic blood pressure (DBP) also differed significantly among the 3 groups (=0.016), and DBP reduction was more obvious in RDN group than in the control group (=0.007), but similar to that in the sham-operated group (=0.052). The changes of resistance index (RI) after the procedure were significantly different among the 3 groups (=0.043), and the RDN group showed a greater reduction of RI than the control group (=0.032) and sham group (=0.043). Serum levels of eNOS, NO and Ang Ⅱ did not differ significantly among the groups either before or after RDN (>0.05), but serum NE level was significantly higher in RDN group than in the control groupafter successful modeling (=0.014), but similar to that in the sham group (=0.560). Compared with the sham operation, RDN in the hypertensive beagles resulted in a significantly greater decrease of serum NE level (=0.032) to almost the control level (= 0.080). The changes of RI following RDN were significantly correlated with the changes of SBP, DBP and serum levels of NO and NE ( < 0.05).

Conclusion: RDN can significantly reduce blood pressure and improve arterial stiffness in hypertensive beagles possibly by reducing sympathetic activity and blood pressure and promoting NO synthesis.