Figure 1

Schematic drawing of the central and peripheral sympathetic nervous systems (original drawing by Kumagai). Increased activity of the rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) neurons is transmitted to the intermediolateral (IML) cell column of the spinal cord, where peripheral sympathetic nerves to the heart, arterioles and kidneys are activated, thus increasing blood pressure (BP). Potentiated sensitivity of the subfornical organ to plasma angiotensin II (Ang II), and that of the subfornical organ and the lamina terminalis to serum Na, increases the efferent sympathetic activity and BP through the activation of the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) and the RVLM neurons in essential hypertension. A full color version of this figure is available at the Hypertension Research journal online.