Regional cerebral blood flow and arterial blood volume and their reactivity to hypercapnia in hypertensive and normotensive rats

Chronic hypertension induces cerebrovascular remodeling, changing the inner diameter and elasticity of arterial vessels. To examine cerebrovascular morphologic changes and vasodilatory impairment in early-stage hypertension, we measured baseline (normocapnic) cerebral arterial blood volume (CBV a) and cerebral blood flow (CBF) as well as hypercapnia-induced dynamic vascular responses in animal models. All experiments were performed with young (3 to 4 month old) spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and control Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY) under ∼1% isoflurane anesthesia at 9.4 Tesla. Baseline regional CBF values were similar in both animal groups, whereas SHR had significantly lower CBV a values, especially in the hippocampus area. As CBF is maintained by adjusting arterial diameters within the autoregulatory blood pressure range, CBV a is likely more sensitive than CBF for detecting hypertensive-mediated alterations. Unexpectedly, hypercapnia-induced CBF and blood-oxygenation-level- dependent (BOLD) response were significantly higher in SHR as compared with WKY, and the CBF reactivity was highly correlated with the BOLD reactivity in both groups. The higher reactivity in early-stage hypertensive animals indicates no significant vascular remodeling occurred. At later stages of hypertension, the reduced vascular reactivity is expected. Thus, CBF and CBV a mapping may provide novel insights into regional cerebrovascular impairment in hypertension and its progression as hypertension advances.