Effects of white adipose tissue denervation on baroreflex and inflammation markers in an experimental model of overweight

Several neurohumoral factors contribute to cardiovascular dysfunction in obesity. In this study, we tested the influence of retroperitoneal white adipose tissue (rWAT) innervation on baroreflex control of blood pressure, inflammation in target organs and renal function markers in an experimental model of overweight in rats with increased sympathetic drive. Wistar rats were treated with high-fat diet (HFD) for 8 weeks and underwent surgical rWAT denervation (DNX) at 6 weeks (n=6/group). At the end of the experimental protocol, we found that DNX improved reflex bradycardia (HFD: -1.76 ± 0.19, HFD+DNX: -2.76 ± 0.20, Control: -2.36 ± 0.12 bpm/mmHg) and decreased hepatic and splenic proinflammatory cytokines in the HFD group. Moreover, serum angiotensinogen (HFD: 112 ± 10 vs HFD+DNX: 84 ± 12 uM) and leptin (HFD: 9.8 ± 1.2 vs HFD+DNX: 5.2 ± 0.8 ng/dL) were decreased after DNX. No change was found in renal cytokines or function markers. Therefore, these findings suggest that neural signaling from the rWAT contributes to cardiovascular changes and inflammation in target organs in rats treated with HFD. CAPES, CNPq and FAPESP This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2023 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.