Bianca Gonzales Cerqueira1, Qiang Shen1, Fang Du1, Glenn M. Toney2, Timothy Q. Duong1
1Research Imaging Institute, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, United States; 2Department of Physiology, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, United States
Osmoregulation is an essential function in mammals. This study uses BOLD fMRI to investigate rat brain activation in response to a 200l bolus injection of hypertonic saline into the right internal carotid. Activated areas are cingulate cortex, somatosensory cortex, fornix, periaqueductal gray, field CA3 of hippocampus, hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus, insula, median preoptic nucleus, and organsum vasculosum laminae terminalis. We found novel sites of activation as well as established areas that are consistent with osmoregulatory circuits reported in electrophysiological, histological, and lesion studies. Our ultimate goal is to identify and validate new sites for targeting treatment of salt-sensitive forms of hypertension.
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