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Age-related changes in thirst, salt appetite, and arterial blood pressure in response to aldosterone-dexamethasone combination in rats
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Age-related changes in thirst, salt appetite, and arterial blood pressure in response to aldosterone-dexamethasone combination in rats

Robert L Thunhorst, Baojian Xue, Terry G Beltz and Alan Kim Johnson
American journal of physiology. Regulatory, integrative and comparative physiology, Vol.308(10), pp.R807-R815
05/15/2015
DOI: 10.1152/ajpregu.00490.2014
PMCID: PMC4436977
PMID: 25833938
url
https://doi.org/10.1152/ajpregu.00490.2014View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

This work examined the effects of age on daily water and sodium ingestion and cardiovascular responses to chronic administration of the mineralocorticoid, aldosterone (ALDO) either alone or together with the glucocorticoid, dexamethasone (DEX). Young (4 mo), adult (12 mo), and aged (30 mo) male Brown Norway rats were prepared for continuous telemetry recording of blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR). Baseline water and sodium (i.e., 0.3 M NaCl) intake, BP, and HR were established for 10 days. Then ALDO (60 μg/day sc) was infused alone, or together with DEX (2.5 or 20 μg/day sc), for another 10 days. Compared with baseline levels, ALDO stimulated comparable increases in daily saline intake at all ages. ALDO together with the higher dose of DEX (i.e., ALDO/DEX20) increased daily saline intake more than did ALDO, but less so in aged rats. Infusion of ALDO/DEX20 increased mean arterial pressure (MAP), and decreased HR, more than did infusion of ALDO. The changes in MAP in response to both treatments depended on age. For all ages, MAP and saline intake increased simultaneously during ALDO, while MAP always increased before saline intake did during ALDO/DEX20. Contrary to our predictions, MAP did not increase more in old rats in response to either treatment. We speculate that age-related declines in cardiovascular responses to glucocorticoids contributed to the attenuated increases in sodium intake in response to glucocorticoids that were observed in older animals.
Sodium Chloride, Dietary - administration & dosage Appetite - drug effects Body Weight - drug effects Rats Aldosterone - pharmacology Male Heart Rate - drug effects Thirst - physiology Thirst - drug effects Animals Dexamethasone - pharmacology Aging - physiology Heart Rate - physiology Appetite - physiology Blood Pressure - drug effects Blood Pressure - physiology Body Weight - physiology

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