Can skeletal muscle be a therapeutic target for treatment of autonomic dysfunction in heart failure?

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26670112
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Environmental physiology(including physical medicine and nutritional physiology)
• Research Institution: Tottori University
• Principal Investigator: Koba Satoshi 鳥取大学, 医学部, 准教授 (40565743)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 心不全 / 自律神経 / 骨格筋 / 酸化ストレス

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We attempted to quantitatively examine the relationship between activation of skeletal muscle and sympathetic nerves under the conscious state. Ｗe only succeeded in measuring either sympathetic nerve activity or electromyogram in conscious rats because of noise artifacts inevitable when simultaneously measured. In the experiment with measurements of rat arterial pressure and heart rate, intravenous infusion of Tempol, an antioxidant chemical, did not have effects to modulate cardiovascular responses in association with freezing behavior in rats. This observation suggested that central, rather than peripheral, factors played a dominant role in producing excessive sympathoexcitation seen in association with freezing behavior in conscious rats with heart failure. The data did not support the hypothesis that skeletal muscle can be a therapeutic target for treatment of autonomic dysfunction in heart failure.

Free Research Field

自律神経生理学