Neonatal N-(-2-chloroethyl)-N-ethyl-2-bromobenzylamine (DSP-4) treatment modifies the vulnerability to phenobarbital- and ethanol-evoked sedative-hypnotic effects in adult rats.
Journal Title: Pharmacological Reports - Year 2008, Vol 60, Issue 3
Abstract
To study the influence of the central noradrenergic system on sensitivity to sedative-hypnotic effects mediated by the aminobutyric acid (GABA) system, intact rats were contrasted with rats in which noradrenergic nerves were largely destroyed shortly after birth with the neurotoxin DSP-4 [N-(2-chloroethyl)-N-ethyl-2-bromobenzylamine; 50 mg/kg sc x2, P1 and P3]. At 10 weeks, loss of the righting reflex (LORR) was used as an index to study the acute sedative-hypnotic effects of phenobarbital (100 mg/kg ip) and ethanol (4 g/kg ip, 25% v/v). Additionally, GABA concentration in the medial prefrontal cortex (PFC), hippocampus, cerebellum and brainstem was estimated by an HPLC/ED method. Neonatal DSP-4 treatment diminished the sedative-hypnotic effects of both phenobarbital and ethanol in adult rats. While the endogenous GABA content in the PFC, hippocampus, brainstem and cerebellum of DSP-4-treated rats was not altered, phenobarbital significantly decreased GABA content of both intact and DSP-4-lesioned rats by approximately 40% in the hippocampus and by approximately 20% in other brain regions at 1 h. Ethanol reduced GABA content by approximately 15-30% but only in the hippocampus and brainstem of both intact and lesioned rats. These findings indicate that the noradrenergic system exerts a prominent influence on sedative-hypnotics acting via GABAergic systems in the brain without directly altering GABA levels in the brain.
Authors and Affiliations
Aleksandra Bortel, Lucyna Słomian, Dariusz Nitka, Michał Swierszcz, Mirella Jaksz, Beata Adamus-Sitkiewicz, Przemysław Nowak, Jadwiga Jośko, Richard Kostrzewa, Ryszard Brus
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