Office: 210-567-0461
Email: laborde@uthscsa.edu

The mechanisms of post-menopausal hypertension are not well understood and few animal models exist to study this phenomenon. In my laboratory, we use the Dahl Salt Sensitive rat as an animal model of post-menopausal hypertension to investigate the mechanisms responsible for the hypertension. The Dahl Salt Sensitive rat shares the common trait of salt-sensitivity with many post-menopausal hypertensive women. While many observations implicate a role for estrogen, the effects of aging on the regulation of blood pressure can also contribute to the development of salt-sensitive hypertension in postmenopausal women.

My research focuses on understanding how estrogen loss, aging and salt diet can result in the activation of pressor systems important in the development of hypertension. Two major controllers of blood pressure are the sympathetic nervous system and the renin angiotensin system. My studies are designed to determine how estrogen loss, aging and salt diet can alter the ability of the sympathetic nervous system and the renin angiotensin system to control blood pressure.

In our experiments, we record blood pressure and heart rate by radiotelemetry to determine the long-term effects of aging and estrogen loss in female rats when they are fed a low salt diet and a high salt diet. We assess the contribution of the sympathetic nervous system by recording sympathetic nerve activity, measuring circulating catecholamines, and by various pharmacological techniques. The contribution of the renin-angiotension system assessed by measuring circulating levels of various components of the renin angiotensin system, and by pharmacologically blocking angiontensin receptors in the blood vessels. Molecular mechanisms of the regulation of the renin-angiotensin system are also determined.

Selected Publications

Hinojosa-Laborde C, Mifflin SW: Sex Differences in Blood Pressure Response to Intermittent Hypoxia in Rats. Hypertension, 46:1016-1021, Oct. 2005.

Hinojosa-Laborde C, Craig T, Zheng W, Ji H, Haywood J, and Sandberg K: Ovariectomy Augments Hypertension in Aging Female Dahl Salt-Sensitive Rats. Hypertension 44:405-409, 2004.

Maric C, K. Sandberg, and C. Hinojosa-Laborde: Glomerulosclerosis and Tubulointerstitial Fibrosis are Attenuated with 17ß-Estradiol in the Aging Dahl Salt Sensitive Rat. Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, 15(6): 1546-56, 2004.

Hinojosa-Laborde C, Lange DL, Haywood JR. Role of female sex hormones in the development and reversal of dahl hypertension. Hypertension. Jan;35(1 Pt 2):484-9, 2000.

Lange DL, Haywood JR, Hinojosa-Laborde C. Endothelin enhances and inhibits adrenal catecholamine release in deoxycorticosterone acetate-salt hypertensive rats. Hypertension. Jan;35(1 Pt 2):385-90, 2000.

Hinojosa-Laborde, C., I. Chapa, D. Lange and J.R. Haywood. Gender Differences in sympathetic nervous system regulation. Clin. & Exp. Pharmacol. & Physiol. 26:122-126, 1999.

Haywood, J.R. and Hinojosa-Laborde, C. Sexual dimorphism of sodium-sensitive renal wrap hypertension. Hypertension 30:667-671, 1997.