Prenatal high salt programs enhanced sympathoadrenal activation of the cardiovascular response to restraint

We recently reported that feeding Sprague Dawley rats a high-salt diet during pregnancy programmed an exaggerated pressor and tachycardic response to restraint in adult female offspring. In the present investigation, a pharmacologic approach was used to determine the contribution of the sympathoadrenal system to the exaggerated response. Injection of a cocktail containing a ganglionic blocker (chlorisondamine) and a β-adrenoceptor antagonist (propranolol) prevented the stress-induced tachycardia and increase in blood pressure and abolished the difference between high-salt and normal-salt offspring. These data suggest that the prenatal high salt programmed a sympathoadrenal hyperresponsiveness to restraint stress.