Blood Pressure Change in Intrafascicular Vagal Activities

Baroreflex plays a significant role in modulating blood pressure for the human body.It is known that activation of the vagal nerve related to baroreflex can lead to reductions of blood pressure.However,how the vagal activities quantitatively relate with blood pressure can hardly be achieved.Here fine carbon nanotube yarn(CNTy)electrodes were adopted for recording intrafascicular vagal activities,synchronized with measurement of arterial blood pressure in a rat.Together with a novel algorithm,the results preliminarily quantified that there were six clusters of neural spikes within recorded vagal activities,and the number of individual vagal spikes correspondingly varied with blood pressure.Especially for Cluster 2,the neural activations decreased with arterial blood pressure increasing.This study can shed lights on the quantified neural mechanism underlying the control of vagal activities on blood pressure,and guide the vagal-nerve neuromodulation for treating hypertension.

Cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway： a possible approach to protect against myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury

Objective A general review was made of studies involving： （1） the concept and mechanism of the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway （CAP）, （2） the important role of inflammatory response in myocardial ischemia reperfusion （I/R） injury and （3） the evidence and mechanisms by which CAP may provide protection against myocardial I/R injury. Data sources The data used in this review were mainly from manuscripts listed in PubMed that were published in English from 1987 to 2009. The search terms were ＂vagal nerve stimulation＂, ＂myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury＂, ＂nicotine acetylcholine receptor＂ and ＂inflammation＂. Study selection （1） Clinical and experimental evidence that the inflammatory response induced by reperfusion enhances myocardial I/R injury. （2） Clinical and laboratory evidence that the CAP inhibits the inflammation and provides protection against myocardial I/R injury. Results The myocardial I/R injury is really an inflammatory process characterized by recruitment of neutrophils into the ischemic myocardium and excessive production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Because the CAP can modulate the inflammatory response by decreasing the production and release of pro-inflammatory cytokines, it can provide protection against myocardial I/R injury. Conclusions The CAP can inhibit the inflammatory response induced by reperfusion and protect against myocardial I/R injury. It represents an exciting opportunity to develop new and novel therapeutics to attenuate the myocardial I/R injury.