How is blood pressure controlled by the nervous system?

The cardiovascular system is strongly influenced by the activity of the sympathetic nervous system. In disease conditions (such as hypertension and heart failure) the sympathetic system is overactive. There is growing interest in controlling this overactivity to treat such diseases, but not enough information on how to do this. To advance this knowledge, this project will investigate connections in the nervous system in relevant circuits. Targeting neuronal tracing using the latest viral vector technology will identify the anatomy of the circuits in mice. Functional circuit analysis will be conducted using 2-photon microscopy in slices of the CNS from transgenic mouse lines. Select circuitry will be activated using optogenetics. The initial focus will be on GABAergic cells, but this could expand to other cell types if time permit. Training will therefore likely include neuroanatomical tracing, immunohistochemistry, confocal microscopy, 2-photon calcium and voltage imaging and optogenetics.