AGT and hypertensive disorder: One well-characterized CVO–hypothalamic pathway implicated in AngII-mediated hypertension involves an excitatory pathway between the subfornical organ and the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus, a critical regulator of sympathetic output involving brainstem and spinal cord circuits that play an important role in blood pressure regulation (Mangiapane and Simpson 1980; Lind et al. 1983; Ferguson 2009).