Sympathetic Reactivity and Family History of Hypertension

How does family history of hypertension contribute to sympathetic neural control of blood pressure, and what role does mental stress play in blood pressure regulation? The latest work by Fonkue et al seeks to answer these very questions. Listen as Consulting Editor Nisha Charkoudian (U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine) interviews lead author Jason Carter (Michigan Technological University) and content expert Megan Wenner (University of Delaware) about the study by Carter and colleagues, which used microneurography to measure muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) during an acute bout of mental stress (performing mental math) in both women and men with, and without, a family history of hypertension. Can evaluations of larger groups over several years help determine if the sympathetic nervous system plays an essential role in the development of hypertension in those with a family history of the disease? Listen and find out.

Ida T. Fonkoue, Min Wang, Jason R. Carter Sympathetic neural reactivity to mental stress in offspring of hypertensive parents: 20 years revisited Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, published July 1, 2016. DOI: 10.1152/ajpheart.00378.2016