Role of the renal nerves in hypertension.

............................................................................................................................ iii Table of contents .............................................................................................................. iv List of tables...................................................................................................................... vi List of figures ................................................................................................................... vii Contributions..................................................................................................................... x Chapter One Introduction ............................................................................................. 1 1.1 Background ............................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Efferent renal nerves ............................................................................................... 5 1.3 Afferent renal nerves............................................................................................. 12 1.4 Differential role of afferent and efferent renal nerves in hypertension ................ 17 1.5 Thesis overview .................................................................................................... 20 Chapter Two Reversal of Genetic Salt-Sensitive Hypertension by Targeted Sympathetic Ablation ..................................................................................................... 25 2.1 Summary ............................................................................................................... 26 2.2 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 27 2.3 Methods................................................................................................................. 28 2.4 Results ................................................................................................................... 30 2.5 Discussion ............................................................................................................. 32 2.6 Perspectives........................................................................................................... 36