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What the researchers found
In a study published online on 17 December 2025 and in Circulation Research on 16 January 2026, Karolyne S. Magalhães and colleagues investigated neurons in the brainstem’s lateral parafacial region (pFL). The team used normotensive and hypertensive rats, manipulating pFL neurons with viral, optogenetic and pharmacogenetic methods while recording respiratory motor output, sympathetic activity and arterial pressure. The study’s abstract reports that activating pFL neurons triggered active expiration and increased sympathetic activity during expiration, with blood pressure rising as a result. The neurons projected to presympathetic RVLM and A5 neurons; transmission from pFL to RVLM was enhanced in hypertension. The PubMed abstract describes the study and its findings.
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How breathing-related neurons could affect blood pressure
The pFL’s role in forceful exhalation
The lateral parafacial region is associated with active, forceful exhalation, such as during coughing, laughing or exercise. In the rat experiments, the researchers linked pFL activity during expiration with sympathetic output—the nerve signals that can tighten blood vessels and influence blood pressure. This is a specific neural pathway under study, not evidence that normal breathing or everyday exercise causes hypertension.
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Activating the neurons raised pressure in the experiments, while University of Auckland reporting says inactivating the region in hypertensive rats returned blood pressure to normal levels. Lead researcher Julian Paton described that result in the university’s 6 January 2026 report: “We discovered that, in conditions of high blood pressure, the lateral parafacial region is activated and, when our team inactivated this region, blood pressure fell to normal levels.” These are findings from an animal model; they do not show that suppressing the pFL would safely or effectively treat hypertension in people. The University of Auckland’s account provides the research team’s explanation and the quotation.
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Could this lead to a treatment?
The team’s treatment idea is to target the carotid bodies, small clusters of oxygen-sensing cells near the carotid arteries, to influence the pFL indirectly. The aim is to avoid a drug that must cross into the brain. Paton told the University of Auckland that the group was importing a drug being repurposed to reduce carotid-body activity and indirectly inactivate the lateral parafacial region. That statement describes a research plan, not a validated treatment, a clinical trial result or a medicine patients can obtain for hypertension.
The university said the approach might be relevant to people with sleep apnoea because carotid bodies are activated when breathing stops at night. That is a rationale for further investigation, not evidence that this strategy treats sleep apnoea or high blood pressure in patients. The work still needs extensive testing before its safety, effectiveness and relevance to humans can be established. ScienceAlert’s coverage also emphasizes the animal evidence and uncertainty about human application.
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How this differs from a separate carotid-body study
A separate 2025 University of Auckland report described rat-model research in which the carotid body responded to high blood pressure by activating the sympathetic nervous system. That study is related to interest in the carotid bodies, but it is not the pFL experiment described above. The university said researchers still need to confirm whether humans respond in the same way. The report on that separate study describes its distinct finding.
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The paper’s abstract says that 40% of treated patients remain hypertensive. This is background context for why researchers study blood-pressure mechanisms; it is not a measurement from the rat experiments and does not mean that pFL activity causes 40% of hypertension. The abstract record is the source of the statistic.
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What people with high blood pressure should do
This result does not change current hypertension care. It does not establish a human cause, a new clinical test or an available treatment. Do not seek an experimental drug or change prescribed medication or other care because of this rat study; discuss blood-pressure concerns and treatment decisions with a qualified health professional.
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