Sub-Chronic Peroneal Nerve Stimulation Lowers Ambulatory Blood Pressure in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats

Figures

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  FIGURE 1.. Experimental design. (a) Rat hindlimb nerves. (b) Diagram of the wNClip stimulator. (c) Photograph of the device implanted on the common peroneal nerve (cPN). (d) cPN stimulation (cPNS) in anesthetized SHR animals. (e) Color traced limb movement evoked by cPNS. (f) Graph of daily maximum power needed for limb movement threshold (g) experimental design of cPNS (red bars) and continuous BP telemetry during ambulatory (blue bars) and cPNS 5 days a week, for 5 weeks.

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  FIGURE 2.. Effect of anesthesia (A) and cPNS (ES) on SBP and HR. (a) Neuromodulation did not alter the SBP during ES in WKY animals (n = 6; 28 values), but it reduced SBP in SHR animals (n = 4, 16 values). * = p<0.01. (b) Heart rate was not significantly altered by the treatment.

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  FIGURE 3.. Representative BP values in a sham SHR animal. (a) Comparison of BP in the same animal at day 3 (a) and day 32 (b), showed no qualitative change in blood pressure during 8 minutes of free ambulation. The broken line depicts the average values at day 3 for reference.

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  FIGURE 4.. Representative BP values in a SHR animals with cPNS. (a) Comparison of BP in the same animal at day 3 (a) and day 39 (b), showed a qualitative reduction in SBP (red dotted line) during 8 minutes of free ambulation. Broken lines depict the average values at day 3 as reference.

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  FIGURE 5.. cPNS reduces SBP but not HR in SHR animals. (a) Weekly median SBP values in SHR (n = 5) were higher than those at WKY controls (n = 5) at week, but comparable by the last week of treatment). (b) No changes in weekly HR were observed overtime with comparable values in treated WKY and SHR animals. * = p< 0.05; ** = p<0.01.

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  FIGURE 6.. Individual ambulatory SBP and response to treatment. Changes in SBP overtime in individual animals shows a non-responder (N.R.) SHR animal, and differential reduction in the other SHR ES animal, with not change or slight increase in the WKY.