HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE associated with sympathetic overactivity is often associated with cardiovascular related mortality and/or morbidity. A therapeutic approach now considered for the treatment of resistant forms of the disease involves the selective denervation of the kidney (16, 51, 52, 57). Kidney function is known to be of primary importance in the long-term regulation and maintenance of art...

The aim of the present study was to determine the roles that externally versus internally oriented CO(2)/H(+)-sensitive chemoreceptors might play in promoting cardiorespiratory responses to environmental hypercarbia in the air-breathing fish, Hoplerythrinus unitaeniatus (jeju). Fish were exposed to graded hypercarbia (1, 2.5, 5, 10 and 20% CO(2)) and also to graded levels of environmental acido...

Insects encounter a vast repertoire of chemicals in their natural environment, which can signal positive stimuli like the presence of a food source, a potential mate, or a suitable oviposition site as well as negative stimuli such as competitors, predators, or toxic substances reflecting danger. The presence of specialized chemoreceptors like taste and olfactory receptors allows animals to dete...

In this issue, Fletcher et al 1 report that repetitive brief hypoxia applied during a 7-hour period per day for up to 35 days causes diurnal elevation of blood pressure in rats. This significant finding examines the mechanism of chronic, reversible arterial hypertension correlated with sleep apnea syndrome.The hemodynamic pattern of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) (blood pressure rise at the nadi...