Author Description

This study was undertaken to locate and characterisethe neurons in the central nervous system that project to thekidney. A retrograde transsynaptic viral tracer was injected into thekidney of rats and traced through the neuraxis to locate these neurons. The results show that a polysynaptic neural pathway extends frommultiple forebrain sites including several novel autonomicsites, and projects successively through the brainstem, spinal cord andperipheral ganglia en route to the kidney. This pathway is activated inresponse to stimuli associated with the regulation of body fluidbalance. Both classical amino acid transmitters, and neuropeptideslikely mediate these effects. This work lays the foundation forpotential therapeutics in the treatment conditions of renal failure in whichthe central circuitry projecting to the renal nerves is compromised.