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Optogenetics supports to identify the function of renal autonomic system

Hypertension Research volume 46, pages 2439–2441 (2023)Cite this article

Recently published research showed parasympathetic innervation around renal arteries by immunohistochemistry, retrograde tracing and single-cell RNA sequencing in transgenic mice [1]. Although anatomically evidence is solid, the action of renal autonomic nerves, especially vagal nerves, is rarely reported. Herein, a preliminary experiment of optogenetic modulation was performed to selectively activate sympathetic or parasympathetic nerves around renal arteries to explore their function of blood pressure modulation and renin excretion.

Nine Sprague Dawley rats were randomly assigned to the control group (CTG), sympathetic activation group (SAG) or vagal activation group (VAG), and anesthetized by 3% sodium pentobarbital (W5632, Xiya Reagent, Shandong, China) intraperitoneally. Renal arteries were exposed via ventral laparotomy, followed by viral transfection with placebo for CTG, pAAV-TH-hChR2-mCherry-WPRE for SAG or pAAV-ChAT-hChR2-EGFP-WPRE for VAG (OBiO, Shanghai, China) dissolved in 15% pluronic gel (P2443, Sigma-Aldrich, USA). After 4-week transfection, the arteries were re-exposed under anesthesia and invasive femoral blood pressure was recorded via infant indwelling needle connected to Biological Signal Collecting and Processing System (BL-420F, Taimeng, Chengdu, China). Light stimulation was delivered to renal arteries by an optic fiber coupled to 473 nm blue laser constantly at 100 mW (MBL-U-473-100mW, CNI optoelectronics, Changchun, China). After optical stimulation, the kidneys and renal arteries with adjacent adipose tissue were collected immediately for further immunofluorescence. Awake blood pressure before and after procedure was measured by tail-cuff methods (BP-2010A, Softron, Beijing, China).

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Funding

Funding

This work was supported by General Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No.32071110 (Yuehui Yin), and the Kuanren Talents Program of The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University (Yuehui Yin).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiology, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China

    Hao Zhou, Hang Liu, Dan Li, Yanping Xu, Peilin Xiao & Yuehui Yin

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  1. Hao Zhou
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  2. Hang Liu
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  3. Dan Li
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  4. Yanping Xu
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Contributions

HZ and YY conceptualized the study; HZ, HL, DL, YX and PX participated in the experiment; HZ, HL and DL analyzed the data; HZ drafted this paper; HL, DL, YX, PX and YY revised this paper.

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Correspondence to Yuehui Yin.

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Zhou, H., Liu, H., Li, D. et al. Optogenetics supports to identify the function of renal autonomic system. Hypertens Res 46, 2439–2441 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41440-023-01379-8

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