Metabolic mapping in the sympathetic ganglia and brain of the spontaneously hypertensive rat.

Local rates of glucose utilization in the superior cervical, cardiac, and coeliac ganglia were measured by means of the autoradiographic 2-deoxy-D-[14C]glucose method in male spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and normotensive Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY), 32-34, 46-48, and 78-87 days old. Brain glucose utilization was examined in 78-87-day-old SHR and WKY. At 32-34 days (at which time mean arterial blood pressure was normal and similar in both groups of rats), the rates of glucose utilization of all three sympathetic ganglia were the same in both groups. At 46-48 days, despite the fact that blood pressure had risen significantly in SHR (mean +/- SEM, 136 +/- 3 mm Hg, n = 5, compared to 113 +/- 3 mm Hg, n = 5, in the control WKY), glucose utilization was decreased in the cardiac and coeliac ganglia but not in the superior cervical ganglia of the SHR. At 78-87 days, glucose utilization was reduced in all the sympathetic ganglia of the hypertensive rats. These results suggest that the sympathetic system is less active in SHR and indicate that hyperactivity of the sympathetic nervous system is not part of the mechanism of the hypertension. Of 44 structures examined in the central nervous system, only the external cuneate, vestibular, and fastigial nuclei of the SHR exhibited increased rates of glucose utilization, and no changes were found in any of the other structures. These increases are probably not related to the origin or maintenance of the hypertension, inasmuch as lesioning of the vestibular or fastigial nuclei did not decrease blood pressure in the SHR.