Effects of acetylcholine and atropine on the release of 14C-acetylcholine formed from U-14C-glucose in rat brain cortical and striatal prisms

Effect of Hachimi-jio-gan on scopolamine-induced memory impairment and on acetylcholine content in rat brain

The effect of Hachimi-jio-gan (HJ) on scopolamine induced memory impairment was studied using a radial maze performance, the effect of HJ on the central cholinergic system as measured by acetylcholine (ACh) content, choline acetyltransferase (CAT) and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activities was also examined. HJ (0.01-1.0 g/kg, p.o.) showed no influence on the radial maze performance. However, with the administration of scopolamine (0.5 mg/kg, i.p.), the number of the correct choices decreased and the number of the error choices increased. HJ (0.1 and 0.5 g/kg, p.o.) reduced this scopolamine-induced cognitive disturbance. The effect of HJ on ACh content and enzyme activities in the brain, frontal cortex, hippocampus and striatum was also investigated. In normal rats, HJ (0.1 and 0.5 g/kg, p.o. x 7 days) significantly increased ACh content in the frontal cortex, although it did not increased ACh content in the hippocampus. In scopolamine-treated rats, ACh content decreased in the brain regions examined. HJ (0.5 g/kg, p.o.) inhibited a decrease in ACh content in the frontal cortex, and with the same dosage of HJ increased CAT activity in the frontal cortex and AChE activity in the hippocampus. These results suggest that the behavioral effects of HJ may be related to its effect on the central cholinergic system.

Evidence for the pharmacological similarity between the central presynaptic muscarinic autoreceptor and postsynaptic muscarinic receptors

Twenty antagonist substances with varying potencies for central and peripheral postsynaptic muscarinic receptors have been examined for effects on the central presynaptic muscarinic autoreceptor. This has been monitored by measuring the stimulating effects of the substances on acetylcholine synthesis by rat neocortical tissue prisms. Dose-response curves for selected agents showed that maximal stimulation of synthesis was to 136-140% of the value without an antagonist. At a concentration of 1 microM, 17 of the substances caused a significant increase in synthesis, whilst at 0.01 microM significant stimulation occurred with only atropine, dexetimide, N-methyl-piperdin-4-yl (R)-2-cyclohexyl-2-hydroxyl-2-phenylacetate, quinuclidinyl benzilate (QNB) and scopolamine. Linear regression analysis between synthesis values obtained with the substances and published data for the effects on either cholinoceptor-agonist induced contraction of guinea-pig ileum or the binding of [3H]-QNB to rat forebrain membranes gave correlation coefficients of r = 0.84 (P less than 0.01), and r = 0.75 (P less than 0.02) respectively. The results provide no indication of a pharmacological difference between the central presynaptic muscarinic autoreceptor and central and peripheral postsynaptic muscarinic receptors.