Novel aspects for the role and therapy of autonomic nervous system in pulmonary hypertension toward right ventricular heart failure

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24659393
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Circulatory organs internal medicine
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: HIROOKA Yoshitaka 九州大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 教授 (90284497)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): ABE Kohtaro 九州大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 助教 (20588107) ; KISHI Takuya 九州大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 准教授 (70423514)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 循環器・高血圧 / 生理活性 / 生理学 / 薬剤反応性 / 神経科学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Pulmonary arterial hypertension derives from pulmonary arterial hyper constriction, remodeling, and pathological changes. Pulmonary hypertension is difficult to treat and its prognosis is with right ventricular failure. In the present study, we investigated whether hemodynamic change and autonomic nervous system alteration would be responsible for the pathophysiology of pulmonary hypertension in contrast to the aspect of tumor-like changes.
We found that a novel endothelin receptor antagonist and a thrombin receptor blocker acted on pulmonary artery with relative selectivity thereby improved pathological changes with hemodynamic improvement in rats with pulmonary hypertension. Furthermore, we found that the mechanical reduction of pulmonary hypertension elicited similar beneficial effects.
We also found that sympathetic activation occurred in pulmonary hypertension and suggest the usefulness of cardiac sympathetic imaging in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Free Research Field

神経体液性因子による循環調節機序解明及び治療法の開発