Abstract 20064: DOCA-salt Hypertension Activates PlGF in the Spleen to Couple Sympathetic Drive and Immune System Activation

Introduction: A significant proportion of hypertensive patients is characterized by low-renin hypertension and salt-sensitivity. Deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA)-salt challenge resembles this condition in mice and its hypertensive effect has been also associated to overdrive of peripheral nervous system in organs typically targeted by high blood pressure, as kidneys and vasculature. Hypothesis: Aim of this study was to explore whether DOCA-salt hypertension recruits immune system by overactivating sympathetic nervous system in lymphoid organs and whether this is relevant for blood pressure increase. Methods and Results: The consolidated notion that hypertension induced by DOCA-salt challenge associated with T cells infiltration in the kidney similarly to Angiotensin II, raises a question about the possibility that the two hypertensive hits share also a common site of immune activation. In order to evaluate the role of the splenic immune system in DOCA-salt hypertension, we challenged splenectomized mice...