Neural Control of Renal Function.
DiBona, Gerald F., and Ulla C. Kopp.
Dept. of Internal Medicine, University of Iowa College of Medicine, and
Dept. of Veteran's Affairs Medical Center, Iowa City, Iowa
APStracts 2:0043P, 1996.
ABSTRACT
The renal nerves are the communication link between the central nervous system
and the kidney. In response to multiple peripheral and central inputs,
efferent renal sympathetic nerve activity is altered so as to convey
information to the major structural and functional components of the kidney,
the vessels, glomeruli, and tubules, each of which is innervated. At the level
of each of these individual components, information transfer occurs via
interaction of the neurotransmitter released at the sympathetic nerve
terminal-neuroeffector junction, with specific postjunctional receptors
coupled to defined intracellular signaling and effector systems. In response
to normal physiological stimuli, changes in efferent renal sympathetic nerve
activity contribute importantly to homeostatic regulation of renal blood flow,
glomerular filtration rate, renal tubular epithelial cell solute and water
transport, and hormonal release. Afferent input from sensory receptors located
in the kidney participates in this reflex control system via renorenal
reflexes that enable total renal function to be self-regulated and balanced
between the two kidneys. In pathophysiological conditions, abnormal regulation
of efferent renal sympathetic nerve activity contributes significantly to the
associated abnormalities of renal function which, in turn, are of importance
in the pathogenesis of the disease.
APS Manuscript Number P23-6.
Article publication pending January 1997, Physiological Reviews.
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 13 November 1996