Intravenous morphine-induced activation of vagal afferents: peripheral, spinal, and CNS substrates mediating inhibition of spinal nociception and cardiovascular responses

1992 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 1027-1045 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Randich ◽  
C. L. Thurston ◽  
P. S. Ludwig ◽  
J. D. Robertson ◽  
C. Rasmussen

1. Intravenous administration of 1.0 mg/kg of morphine produces inhibition of the nociceptive tail-flick (TF) reflex, hypotension, and bradycardia in the pentobarbital-anesthetized rat. The present experiments examined peripheral, spinal, and supraspinal relays for inhibition of the TF reflex and cardiovascular responses produced by morphine (1.0 mg/kg iv) in the pentobarbital-anesthetized rat using 1) bilateral cervical vagotomy, 2) spinal cold block or mechanical lesions of the dorsolateral funiculi (DLFs), or 3) nonselective local anesthesia or soma-selective lesions of specific CNS regions. Intravenous morphine-induced inhibition of responses of unidentified, ascending, and spinothalamic tract (STT) lumbosacral spinal dorsal horn neurons to noxious heating of the hindpaw were also examined in intact and bilateral cervical vagotomized rats. 2. Bilateral cervical vagotomy significantly attenuated inhibition of the TF reflex and bradycardia produced by intravenous administration of morphine. Bilateral cervical vagogtomy changed the normal depressor response produced by morphine into a sustained pressor response. Inhibition of the TF reflex in intact rats was not due to changes in tail temperature. 3. Spinal cold block significantly attenuated inhibition of the TF reflex, the depressor response, and the bradycardia produced by intravenous administration of morphine. However, bilateral mechanical transections of the DLFs failed to significantly affect either inhibition of the TF reflex or cardiovascular responses produced by this dose of intravenous morphine. 4. Microinjection of either lidocaine or ibotenic acid into the nuclei tracti solitarii (NTS), rostromedial medulla (RMM), or ventrolateral pontine tegmentum (VLPT) attenuated morphine-induced inhibition of the TF reflex. Similar microinjections into either the periaqueductal gray (PAG) or the dorsolateral pons (DLP) failed to affect morphine-induced inhibition of the TF reflex. 5. Microinjection of either lidocaine or ibotenic acid into the NTS, RMM, VLPT, DLP, or rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) attenuated the depressor response produced by morphine, although baseline arterial blood pressure (ABP) was affected by ibotenic acid microinjections in the DLP. In all these cases, the microinjections failed to reveal a sustained pressor response as was observed with bilateral cervical vagotomy. Similar microinjections into the PAG failed to affect the depressor response produced by morphine. 6. The lidocaine and ibotenic acid microinjection treatments also showed that the bradycardic response produced by morphine depends on the integrity of the NTS, RMM, RVLM, and possibly the DLP, but not the PAG or VLPT.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

1997 ◽  
Vol 272 (6) ◽  
pp. R1783-R1791 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. W. Loomis ◽  
D. Yao ◽  
D. Bieger

A cardiovascular reflex evoked by esophageal distension (ECR) in urethan-anesthetized male Sprague-Dawley rats was studied to 1) determine whether the relevant sensory input from the esophagus is conveyed by vagal and/or spinal afferents and 2) evaluate the effects and sites of action of antinociceptive agents. Esophageal distension evoked a rise in arterial blood pressure and heart rate that increased linearly with the log of inflation pressure (25-150 mmHg). Distension (100 mmHg for 20 s) of the lower esophagus was a more effective stimulus than distension of the upper esophagus. The ECR was attenuated by unilateral and abolished by bilateral cervical vagotomy and dose dependently inhibited by morphine (1.0-4.0 mg/kg iv) or by intrathecal (T4-T5) administration of dexmedetomidine (DX, 0.05-0.5 microgram), but not by intrathecal (T4-T5) morphine (4-16 micrograms) or intrathecal (L1-L2) or intravenous DX (0.05-0.5 microgram). The ECR was also inhibited by capsaicin and by the topical administration of DX or morphine to the solitary complex. The pressor response persisted after intravenous pancuronium, scopolamine, and methscopolamine. The ECR circuit appears to consist of vagal afferents, efferent sympathetic preganglionic pathways originating in the thoracic spinal cord, and bulbospinal neurons yet to be identified. This reflex fulfills some criteria of a nociceptive event, but this interpretation requires further investigation.


1990 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 1115-1124 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Randich ◽  
K. Ren ◽  
G. F. Gebhart

1. Supraspinal substrates mediating vagal afferent stimulation (VAS)-induced inhibition of the nociceptive tail-flick reflex were examined by the use of the soma-selective neurotoxin ibotenic acid and the nonselective local anesthetic lidocaine. Fifty rats were studied in the lightly anesthetized state maintained with pentobarbital sodium. 2. The threshold intensity of VAS required to inhibit the tail-flick reflex to a cut-off latency of 10 s was established in all rats. Ibotenic acid (5 or 10 micrograms, 0.5 microliter) or lidocaine (4%, 0.5 microliter) was then microinjected into various regions of the brain stem followed by reestablishment of the intensity of VAS required to produce inhibition of the tail-flick reflex. 3. Microinjections of ibotenic acid into the ipsilateral nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS), medial rostroventral medulla (principally the nucleus raphe magnus; NRM), or bilaterally into the dorsolateral pons (principally the locus coeruleus/subcoeruleus; LC/SC), significantly increased the threshold intensity of VAS required to inhibit the tail-flick reflex. Microinjections of ibotenic acid into either the rostral or caudal ventrolateral medulla (RVLM or CVLM, respectively) ipsilateral to the vagus nerve stimulated or ipsilateral LC/SC did not significantly affect the inhibition produced by VAS. Arterial blood pressure decreases produced by VAS were significantly attenuated or eliminated after microinjections of ibotenic acid into the NTS, RVLM, CVLM, or NRM. Lidocaine microinjected into the ipsilateral CVLM also significantly increased the intensity of VAS required to inhibit the tail-flick reflex. 4. These outcomes obtained with behavioral measures are consistent with the outcomes of the preceding study using electrophysiological measures in establishing that cells in the NTS, LC/SC, and NRM regions and fibers of passage in the CVLM are important in mediating the inhibitory effects of VAS. The present studies confirm previous reports of the importance of the RVLM and CVLM in VAS-produced depressor responses but also demonstrate that the NRM is critical for this cardiovascular response.


1984 ◽  
Vol 57 (5) ◽  
pp. 1417-1421 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. A. Daskalopoulos ◽  
J. T. Shepherd ◽  
S. C. Walgenbach

To examine the role of cardiopulmonary receptors in arterial blood pressure regulation during and after exercise, conscious dogs with chronic sinoaortic denervation were subjected to 12 min of light exercise and 12 min of exercise that increased in severity every 3 min. Hemodynamic measurements were made before and after interruption of cardiopulmonary afferents by bilateral cervical vagotomy. During both exercise protocols, after an initial transient decrease, the arterial blood pressure remained close to resting values before and after vagotomy. On cessation of the graded exercise, the arterial blood pressure did not change before, but a rapid and sustained increase in pressure occurred after vagotomy. At the time of this increase the cardiac output and heart rate were returning rapidly to the resting level. The study demonstrates that in the chronic absence of arterial baroreflexes, vagal afferents prevent a rise in arterial blood pressure after vigorous exercise presumably by the action of cardiopulmonary receptors causing a rapid dilatation of systemic resistance vessels.


1998 ◽  
Vol 275 (6) ◽  
pp. H2025-H2035 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liang-Wu Fu ◽  
John C. Longhurst

Phenylbiguanide (PBG), a 5-HT3 (serotonin) receptor agonist, has been used in many studies as a “selective” agonist to elicit reflex bradycardia and hypotension through activation of cardiac and pulmonary vagal afferents. Because we have shown that endogenous 5-HT stimulates ischemically sensitive abdominal sympathetic afferents through 5-HT3 receptors, we investigated the possibility that left ventricular (LV) and intra-arterial administration of PBG may evoke a competing reflex response by increasing the activity of sympathetic visceral afferents in anesthetized cats. Mean arterial pressure (MAP) and heart rate (HR) were monitored. When both vagal and sympathetic afferents were intact, PBG (40 μg/kg, injected into the LV) significantly decreased MAP and HR in 8 of 10 cats but increased MAP in the remaining 2 cats. After bilateral cervical vagotomy, LV PBG significantly increased MAP. PBG (40 μg/kg ia) significantly increased MAP and HR, whereas intravenous PBG significantly decreased MAP and HR ( n = 10 cats). Furthermore, the pressor response to PBG (40 μg /kg ia) was reduced by 68% ( P < 0.05; n = 4 cats) by celiac and mesenteric ganglionectomies. In studies of single-unit abdominal sympathetic afferents, intra-arterial but not intravenous PBG (40 μg/kg) significantly increased activity of 10 ischemically sensitive afferents but not ischemically insensitive afferents. Blockade of 5-HT3 receptors with tropisetron (200 μg/kg iv) eliminated the response of the afferents and the pressor response to PBG. These data indicate that PBG administered into the LV usually, but not always, evokes a depressor response that is converted to a pressor response following cervical vagotomy. Also, intra-arterial PBG induces a pressor response by stimulating 5-HT3receptors largely associated with ischemically sensitive abdominal sympathetic afferents.


1990 ◽  
Vol 259 (3) ◽  
pp. R427-R438
Author(s):  
S. Shapira ◽  
O. M. Adeyemo ◽  
G. Feuerstein

omega-Conotoxin (omega-ctx) was used as a probe for studying the putative role of brain L/N-type Ca2+ channels in regulation of autonomic functions. Rats were injected intracerebroventricularly (icv) with omega-ctx, and hemodynamic, biochemical and behavioral variables were monitored. omega-Ctx (0.032-10 nmol/kg) caused a persistent, dose-dependent shaking behavior, complex thermoregulatory changes, and motor deficits lasting up to 48 h. Cardiovascular responses to omega-ctx included tachycardia (+71 +/- 16%, P less than 0.01) and elevated arterial blood pressure (+16 +/- 1%, P less than 0.05) associated with increased circulating levels of norepinephrine and epinephrine. Higher doses, 1 or 10 nmol/kg, resulted in circulatory shock and death. Central administration of 3,4,5-trimethoxybenzoic acid 8-(diethylamino)octyl ester (TMB-8), diltiazem (100 or 1,000 nmol/kg), neomycin (100 nmol/kg, each), nifedipine (10 nmol/kg), and CdCl2 (100 nmol/kg), which represent intracellular, non-specific N-, L-, and L/N-type Ca2(+)-channel blockers, respectively, did not cause any behavioral or hemodynamic effects, whereas the L-channel agonist BAY K 8644 (100 nmol/kg icv) caused a mild transient pressor response. Pretreatment with the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) agonist muscimol (icv) or a combined intravenous pretreatment with propranolol and N-methylatropine blocked the omega-ctx effects. Our data suggest that omega-ctx actions in the brain involve central GABAergic mechanisms modulated by yet a different type of Ca2+ channels not characterized by any of the known voltage-operated Ca2+ channels.


1985 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 936-941 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. J. Rybicki ◽  
T. G. Waldrop ◽  
M. P. Kaufman

Static muscular contraction reflexly increases arterial blood pressure and heart rate. One possible mechanism evoking this reflex is that potassium accumulates in the interstitial space of a working muscle to stimulate group III and IV afferents whose activation in turn evokes a pressor response. The responses of group III and IV muscle afferents to increases in interstitial potassium concentrations within the range evoked by static contraction are unknown. Thus we injected potassium chloride into the gracilis artery of anesthetized dogs while we measured both gracilis muscle interstitial potassium concentrations with potassium-selective electrodes and the impulse activity of afferents in the gracilis nerve. We found that increasing interstitial potassium concentrations to levels similar to those seen during static contraction stimulated 14 of 16 group III and 29 of 31 group IV afferents. The responses of the afferents to potassium were concentration dependent. The typical response to potassium consisted of a burst of impulses, an effect that returned to control firing rates within 26 s, even though interstitial potassium concentrations remained elevated for several minutes. Although our results suggest that potassium may play a role in initiating the reflex cardiovascular responses to static muscular contraction, the accumulation of this ion does not appear to be solely responsible for maintaining the pressor response for the duration of the contraction.


1991 ◽  
Vol 543 (2) ◽  
pp. 256-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Randich ◽  
C.L. Thurston ◽  
P.S. Ludwig ◽  
M.R. Timmerman ◽  
G.F. Gebhart

1994 ◽  
Vol 266 (1) ◽  
pp. H199-H211 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Toska ◽  
M. Eriksen ◽  
L. Walloe

A step decrease in total peripheral conductance (TPC) was introduced in 10 healthy volunteers by rapid inflation to suprasystolic pressure of bilateral thigh cuffs. This provoked a sudden statistically significant increase in mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) of 5 mmHg during supine rest and of 8 mmHg during moderate supine exercise by the quadriceps muscles. Central venous pressure was not changed by cuff inflation. The increase in MAP was blunted by a rapid but transient decrease in both heart rate (HR) and cardiac stroke volume. At rest, a gradual increase in TPC, starting after 4 s, nearly fully restored MAP to its original value at 10 s. During exercise, MAP was halfway corrected at 10 s but then started to increase again, probably as a result of an ischaemic muscle pressor response. After cholinergic blockade by atropine, the immediate HR response was eliminated, but HR decreased gradually after a delay of 3 s. The time development of the slow increase in TPC was not changed by atropine. In conclusion, the regulatory correction of a sudden increase in arterial pressure in supine unanesthetized healthy humans is achieved through an immediate transient parasympathetic bradycardia during the first few seconds and a more gradual sympathetic peripheral vasodilation after 4 s. After cholinergic blockade, a slow presumably sympathetic HR response was observed.


2009 ◽  
pp. 57-67
Author(s):  
G Raffai ◽  
C Csekő ◽  
L Kocsis ◽  
L Dézsi ◽  
E Monos

Microgravity or simulated microgravity induces acute and chronic cardiovascular responses, whose mechanism is pivotal for understanding of physiological adaptation and pathophysiological consequences. We investigated hemodynamic responses of conscious Wistar rats to 45º head-down tilt (HDT) for 7 days. Arterial blood pressure (BP) was recorded by telemetry. Heart rate (HR), spectral properties and the spontaneous baroreflex sensitivity (sBRS) were calculated. Head-up tilt (HUT) was applied for 2 h before and after HDT to assess the degree of any possible cardiovascular deconditioning. Horizontal control BP and HR were 112.5±2.8 mmHg and 344.7±10 bpm, respectively. HDT elicited an elevation in BP and HR by 8.3 % and 8.8 %, respectively, in less than 1 h. These elevations in BP and HR were maintained for 2 and 3 days, respectively, and then normalized. Heart rate variability was unchanged, while sBRS was permanently reduced from the beginning of HDT (1.01±0.08 vs. 0.74±0.05 ms/mmHg). HUT tests before and after HDT resulted in BP elevations (6.9 vs. 11.6 %) and sBRS reduction (0.44 vs. 0.37 ms/mmHg), respectively. The pressor response during the post-HDT HUT test was accompanied by tachycardia (13.7 %). In conclusion, chronic HDT does not lead to symptoms of cardiovascular deconditioning. However the depressed sBRS and tachycardic response seen during the post-HDT HUT test may indicate disturbances in cardiovascular control.


1993 ◽  
Vol 71 (7) ◽  
pp. 453-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haroutioun Hasséssian ◽  
Philippe Poulat ◽  
Edith Hamel ◽  
Tomás A. Reader ◽  
Réjean Couture

The aim of this study was to characterize, in conscious rats, the spinal cord 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) receptors involved in mean arterial pressure (MAP) and heart rate (HR) regulation as well as to examine the influence of bulbospinal 5-HT fibers on cardiovascular responses to intrathecal (i.t.) substance P (SP). The i.t. injection of 5-HT or 5-carboxamidotryptamine (5-CT) (5-HT1A, 1B, 1D agonist) reduced MAP and increased HR in a dose-dependent manner. In contrast, the agonists 8-hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamino)tetraiin (8-OH-DPAT, 5-HT1A agonist) and α-CH3-5-HT (5-HT1C and 5-HT2) only caused a decrease in HR, while the agonist 2-CH3-5-HT (5-HT3) was devoid of cardiovascular effects. The vasodepressor response to 5-CT was antagonized by methiothepin but not affected by mesulergine, ketanserin, propranolol, or yohimbine. However, all five antagonists reduced the HR increase to 5-CT. Ketanserin, propranolol, mesulergine, yohimbine, and methysergide were without effect on resting MAP, while methiothepin reduced MAP. Methiothepin, ketanserin, and methysergide increased resting HR, yet the other antagonists had no effect on this parameter. Rats treated with p-chlorophenylalanine or 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine, but not with 6-hydroxydopamine, exhibited higher resting HR than that of control rats. Although the resting MAP was unaffected, the pressor response to i.t. SP was significantly enhanced by either 5-HT toxin. The results suggest that the receptor mediating the depressor response to 5-HT and 5-CT conforms with the broad pharmacological profile of a 5-HT1-like receptor and is unlikely to be of the 5-HT2 or 5-HT3 subtype. Since the HR response evoked by 5-CT was blocked by antagonists that exhibit affinities for various 5-HT receptor subtypes, it is suggested that a nonspecific blockade or, alternatively, that more than one receptor contributes to this cardiac effect. In addition, the results raise the possibility that a spinal 5-HT input, likely mediated by 5-HT2 receptors, tonically inhibits HR. Hence, an antagonistic interaction between 5-HT and SP is proposed to play a role in the control of arterial blood pressure in the spinal cord.Key words: 5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT receptors, substance P, spinal cord, cardiovascular regulation.


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