AJP - Renal Ad Instruments
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH
 QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     


Am J Physiol Renal Physiol (December 30, 2008). doi:10.1152/ajprenal.90669.2008
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Supplemental Tables
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
296/4/F751    most recent
90669.2008v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Marsh, D. J
Right arrow Articles by Holstein-Rathlou, N.-H.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Marsh, D. J
Right arrow Articles by Holstein-Rathlou, N.-H.
Submitted on November 11, 2008
Revised on December 6, 2008
Accepted on December 23, 2008

Electrotonic vascular signal conduction and nephron synchronization

Donald J Marsh1*, Ildiko Toma2, Olga V. Sosnovtseva3, Janos Peti-Peterdi4, and Niels-Henrik Holstein-Rathlou5

1 Brown University
2 University of Southern California
3 Danish Technical University
4 Univ. Southern California
5 The Panum Instititute

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: marsh{at}ash.biomed.brown.edu.

Tubuloglomerular feedback (TGF) and the myogenic mechanism control afferent arteriolar diameter in each nephron and regulate blood flow. Each mechanism generates a self-sustained oscillation, the oscillations interact, TGF modulates the frequency and amplitude of the myogenic oscillation, and the oscillations synchronize; a frequency ratio of 5:1 is the most frequent. TGF oscillations synchronize in nephron pairs supplied from a common cortical radial artery. Myogenic oscillations also synchronize. We hypothesize that electrotonic vascular signal propagation from one juxtaglomerular apparatus interacts with similar signals from other nephrons to produce synchronization. We tested this idea in tubular-vascular preparations from mice. Vascular smooth muscle cells were loaded with a fluorescent voltage sensitive dye; fluorescence intensity was measured with confocal microscopy. Perfusion of the thick ascending limb activated TGF and depolarized afferent arteriolar smooth muscle cells. The depolarization spread to the cortical radial artery and other afferent arterioles, and declined with distance from the perfused juxtaglomerular apparatus, consistent with electrotonic vascular signal propagation. With a mathematical model of 2 coupled nephrons we estimated the conductance nephron coupling by fitting simulated vessel diameters to experimental data. With this value we simulated nephron pairs to test for synchronization. In single nephron simulations the frequency of the TGF oscillation varied with nephron length. Coupling nephrons of different lengths forced TGF frequencies of both members of the pair to converge to a common value. The myogenic oscillations also synchronized. The result confirms that electronic vascular signal propagation is a plausible mechanism for nephron synchronization. Coupling increased the stability of the various oscillations.







HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH
Visit Other APS Journals Online
Copyright © 1977 by the American Physiological Society.