Hypotensive Effect Induced by Mandibular Extension in Aged, Hypertensive Humans and Rats

Author Info

Cristina Del Seppia Giuseppe Federighi Enza Fommei Sergio Ghione Rossana Scuri

Corresponding Author

Cristina Del Seppia
Institute of Clinical Physiology, National Council of Research (CNR), Pisa, Italy

A B S T R A C T

Objectives: Previous research has shown that submaximal mouth opening by mandibular extension (ME) is followed by a prolonged reduction in blood pressure. This effect was observed in young and adult normotensive and hypertensive rats and in young normotensive human subjects. Methods: We assessed the effects of a ME for 10 minutes obtained with a fixed mouth opener in both hypertensive adult humans (aged 55 years or older) and elderly (6-7 months) anaesthetized, hypertensive rats (SHR). Blood pressure and heart rate were measured every 10 minutes by non-invasive automatic recorders for 30 minutes before and 120 minutes after the procedure. Nine human hypertensive subjects (7 experimental and 2 controls) and seven spontaneously hypertensive rats (5 experimental and 2 controls) were tested. Results: A statistically significant reduction in systolic blood pressure (SBP), mean arterial blood pressure (MABP) and heart rate (HR) was observed after ME in the seven hypertensive human subjects, in whom an average decrease of 15 mmHg for SBP, 10 mmHg for MABP and 7 bpm for HR, was observed. A similar hypotensive effect was recorded in spontaneously hypertensive rats that displayed a statistically significant decrease of SBP, DBP and MABP, amounting to about 40-50 mmHg. Conclusion: This study provides the first evidence that ME has an important and prolonged hypotensive effect when applied to subjects with high blood pressure, making their arterial blood pressure decrease toward normal values for at least two hours.

Article Info

Article Type

Research Article

Publication history

Received: Mon 01, Mar 2021
Accepted: Tue 16, Mar 2021
Published: Mon 19, Apr 2021

Copyright

© 2021 Cristina Del Seppia. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository. All rights reserved.
DOI: 10.31487/j.DOBCR.2021.01.06