SUMMARY The ultrastructural distribution of the autonomic nerves of brain arteries was investigated in renal (one-kidney, one clip) hypertensive and normotensive Wistar-Kyoto rats. Sympathetic and nonsympathetic nerve terminals were found only in the adventitial layer of brain arteries of renal hypertensive and normotensive rats. In both normotensive and renal hypertensive rats the total nerve endings were dense in anterior cerebral artery, moderately dense in middle cerebral artery, and sparse in basilar artery. In normotensive rats, nonsympathetic nerves outnumbered sympathetic nerves in anterior cerebral, middle cerebral, and basilar arteries. In renal hypertensive rats these two types of nerve terminals in close apposition to smooth muscle decreased in anterior cerebral and basilar arteries, while those in middle cerebral arteries remained unchanged. These results suggest that the potential neurogenic control of cerebral blood vessels as well as the trophic effect of sympathetic nerves on brain blood vessels may decrease in renal hypertensive rats. As this finding contrasts with that in spontaneously hypertensive rats, the pattern of innervation in brain arteries may differ in different types of hypertension. (Hypertension 7: 514-518, 1985) KEY Tissue concentrations of norepinephrine are reported to be decreased in mesenteric artery and heart in renal hypertensive animals.10 " On the other hand, the density of sympathetic innervation has been shown to increase in brain arteries of the spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR).5 -l2 Furthermore, autoregulation of lower and higher limits of cerebral blood flow has been reported to change in hypertensive animals. 13 "" These results suggest that autonomic nerves undergo some changes when the animal becomes hypertensive. Alterations in the pattern of autonomic nerves may be different depending on the type of hypertensive model. In this study, we therefore examined and compared the ultrastructural distribution of sympathetic and nonsympathetic nerve terminals and their relationship to smooth muscle cells in the cerebral arterial walls of renal (one-kidney, one clip) hypertensive rats (RHR) and normotensive rats (NR).
MethodsThe experiments were performed on normotensive male Wistar-Kyoto rats. Chronic renal hypertension was induced in 7-week-old rats by placing a silver clip (internal diameter, 0.25 mm) over the left renal artery through a left lumbar incision and followed 1 week later by contralateral nephrectomy. The control animals were sham-operated. The left kidney was exposed after a lumbar incision and was manipulated without compressing the artery. The operating time was approximately the same as that of the procedure for artery clipping. One week later the contralateral kidney was also exposed but not removed. All of the procedures were accomplished with the rats under sodium pentobarbital (Nembutal, 50 mg/ml). The systol-