Early middle-aged non-Hispanic Black females tended to exhibit greater peak increases in mean arterial pressure following MSNA bursts compared to White females (3.1 vs 2.2 mmHg; P=0.06).
Cross-Sectional (n=12)
Do early middle-aged non-Hispanic Black females have greater sympathetic transduction to blood pressure compared to non-Hispanic White females?
Early middle-aged non-Hispanic Black females may exhibit greater sympathetic transduction to blood pressure than their White counterparts, potentially contributing to their higher risk of developing hypertension.
Absolute Event Rate: 3.1% vs 2.2%
p-value: p=0.06
Non-Hispanic Black (BL) females have the highest prevalence of hypertension compared to all other racial or ethnic groups and the sympathetic nervous system has been widely implicated in the development of the disease. Previous research from our laboratory suggests that sympathetic transduction to blood pressure (BP) is not different between BL and non-Hispanic White (WH) young adult females. However, it remains unknown if this persists into early middle-age, the most common time of hypertension diagnosis. Therefore, the aim of this investigation was to test the hypothesis that early middle-aged BL females have greater sympathetic transduction to BP than their WH counterparts who are at a lower risk for developing hypertension. We studied 6 premenopausal BL females (age: 41 ± 4 years, BMI: 27 ± 4 kg/m 2 ) and 6 premenopausal, age and BMI matched WH females (age: 41 ± 4 years, BMI: 26 ± 3 kg/m 2 ). Muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA; peroneal microneurography) and beat-to-beat blood pressure (finger photoplethysmography) were continuously recorded during 10 minutes of quiet supine rest. Signal averaging was used to quantify sympathetic transduction whereby MSNA bursts act as a trigger and beat-to-beat changes in mean arterial pressure (MAP) are followed over the subsequent 10 cardiac cycles. Peak increases in MAP over the 10 cardiac cycles were used to index sympathetic transduction. Bursts of MSNA were also divided into quartiles based on amplitude (i.e., Q1 smallest 25% of bursts; Q4 largest 25% of bursts) and peak increases in MAP were then compared across quartiles. BL females tended to have greater resting MAP than WH females (BL: 99 ± 14 mmHg; WH: 84 ± 9 mmHg; P = 0.06). Whereas there were no between group differences in resting MSNA burst frequency (BL: 24 ± 4 bursts/min; WH: 25 ± 15 bursts/min; P = 0.81) or MSNA burst incidence (BL: 36 ± 8 bursts/ 100 heart beats; WH: 39 ± 21 bursts/ 100 heart beats; P = 0.75). Peak increases in MAP following MSNA bursts tended to be greater in BL compared to WH females (BL: 3.1 ± 1.0 mmHg; WH: 2.2 ± 0.4 mmHg; P = 0.06). Both groups had graded increases in MAP with increasing burst amplitude (main effect of quartile; P < 0.001). The increase in MAP across quartiles was greater in BL females (main effect of group; P =0.04) but there was no group by quartile interaction (P = 0.66). These preliminary findings suggest that early middle-aged BL females may have greater sympathetic transduction to BP than their WH counterparts. Further studies are warranted. This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2026 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.
Kissell et al. (2026) conducted a cross-sectional in Hypertension risk (n=12). Non-Hispanic Black race vs. Non-Hispanic White race was evaluated on Peak increases in mean arterial pressure (MAP) following MSNA bursts (p=0.06). Early middle-aged non-Hispanic Black females tended to exhibit greater peak increases in mean arterial pressure following MSNA bursts compared to White females (3.1 vs 2.2 mmHg; P=0.06).