UVA finds brain cells behind stable blood pressure — SkimNews
Get the Health newsletter
Daily health & science — research, biotech, public health, the studies worth knowing. Free.
- University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers identified a small population of adrenergic nerve cells in the brainstem that keeps blood pressure steady as people move between everyday states, including sleeping, waking, standing and exercising.
- Stephen Abbott, the lead investigator, said the loss of just a few hundred of those cells leaves blood pressure unstable even though mean blood pressure is normal, stressing that the issue is not just lowering numbers "but keeping blood pressure stable from moment to moment."
- Multiple system atrophy, a rare, fatal neurological disorder related to Parkinson's disease, often brings severe difficulty regulating blood pressure, and the same nerve cells have been found damaged or missing in people with the condition.
- Blood pressure variability is the under-measured risk: rapid or excessive changes through the day independently increase the risk of heart disease, stroke and brain injury even when average readings fall within the normal range.
- Circulation Research published the study in 2026 (vol. 138, no. 4; DOI 10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.125.326792), with George M.P.R. Souza, Harsha Thakkalapally, Faye E. Berry, Leah F. Wisniewski, Ulrich M. Atongazi, Daniel S. Stornetta and Abbott on the author list.
- National Institutes of Health funded the work through grant HL148004, and the researchers reported no financial interests; the finding also reflects the goals of UVA's newly established Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology, which focuses on moving laboratory findings toward treatments.
Why it matters: For patients whose readings average normal and for people with multiple system atrophy, the finding shifts the target from lowering numbers to keeping blood pressure stable between sleeping, standing and exercising. It also gives the NIH-funded team (grant HL148004) a defined mechanism behind fluctuation-driven stroke and brain injury to work from.
Ask SkimNews
