Deadly danger of salt is explained – Mail News

Hypertension is a major risk factor. cardiovascular diseases in the world and the death of a stroke and a heart attack. About 40% of the adult population aged 25 and over is suffering from high blood pressure.

The development of hypertension contributes to the use of salt (NaCl). The more sodium chloride enters the human body, the more sodium ions accumulate in the blood plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). This, in turn, leads to the excitation of the sympathetic nervous system that regulates the blood circulation.

It has been shown that specific sodium channels, that is, protein structures of the cell membrane, through which sodium ions enter the cell, are formed in certain glial cells, notably astrocytes and cells. of the ependyma, the membranes lining some of the structures of the central nervous system.

These structures are the circumventricular organs, which provide the link between the nervous and circulatory systems. Scientists have discovered that these sodium channels are brain "sensors" that monitor the increase in sodium ion concentration in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid.

The researchers demonstrated that in mutant mice lacking sodium channels in circumventricular organs, activation of sympathetic nerves did not occur with high salt intake. In wild-type mice, a series of biochemical reactions occurred in the glial cells.

Sodium ions in the extracellular environment caused the opening of sodium channels and the influx of Na into the cytoplasm resulted in intensive lactate formation. Lactate and hydrogen ions were released by activated cells and neurons in the hypothalamus and medulla, which stimulates sympathetic nerves.