Effect of amygdalectomy on stress-induced myocardial necroses and blood levels of catecholamines in pigs

Effect of Phenoxybenzamine on Myocardial Cell Necroses and Blood Levels of Catecholamines in Pigs Subjected to Stress

The degree of myocardial cell necroses after stress was investigated in 6 pigs, weighing 70 to 90 kg. The stress was induced by a myorelaxant, succinylcholine, for about 12 min. The alpha-adrenoceptor blocking agent phenoxybenzamine (PBZ) was given orally 3 times a day in a total dose of 50 to 60 mg per day for 6 to 7 days before the stress. The plasma levels of noradrenaline and adrenaline were assayed in blood samples drawn before, during, and immediately after the period of stress. Heart cell necroses were found in all the cases. The activity of the sympathetic-adrenomedullary system, indicated by the plasma levels of catecholamines, was intense during the stress. When the present results were compared with those of earlier studies the degree of heart cell necroses was significantly smaller after PBZ in control pigs but significantly higher than after the beta-adrenoceptor blocking agent propranolol given for about a week. PBZ exerts a number of different actions, as briefly discussed, some of them appearing to be harmful for the heart during stress while others appear to be protective for the heart.

Neuroimmunomodulation via limbic structures--the neuroanatomy of psychoimmunology

During the last 20 years, mutual communications between the immune, the endocrine and the nervous systems have been defined on the basis of physiological, cellular, and molecular data. Nevertheless, a major problem in the new discipline "Psychoneuroimmunology" is that controversial data and differences in the interpretation of the results make it difficult to obtain a comprehensive overview of the implications of immunoneuroendocrine interactions in the maintenance of physiological homeostasis, as well as in the initiation and the course of pathological conditions within these systems. In this article, we will first discuss the afferent pathways by which immune cells may affect CNS functions and, conversely, how neural tissues can influence the peripheral immune response. We will then review recent data, which emphasize the (patho)physiological roles of hippocampal-amygdala structures and the nucleus accumbens in neuroimmunomodulation. Neuronal activity within the hippocampal formation, the amygdaloid body, and the ventral parts of the basal ganglia has been examined most thoroughly in studies on neuroendocrine, autonomic and cognitive functions, or at the level of emotional and psychomotor behaviors. The interplay of these limbic structures with components of the immune system and vice versa, however, is still less defined. We will attempt to review and discuss this area of research taking into account recent evidences for neuroendocrine immunoregulation via limbic neuronal systems, as well as the influence of cytokines on synaptic transmission, neuronal growth and survival in these brain regions. Finally, the role of limbic structures in stress responses and conditioning of immune reactivity will be commented. Based on these data, we propose new directions of future research.

Dihydropyridine- and neurotoxin-sensitive and -insensitive calcium currents in acutely dissociated neurons of the rat central amygdala

The central amygdala (CeA) is an area involved in emotional learning and stress, and identification of Ca2+ currents is essential to understanding interneuronal communication through this nucleus. The purpose of this study was to separate and characterize dihydropyridine (DHP)- and neurotoxin-sensitive and -resistant components of the whole cell Ca2+ current (ICa) in acutely dissociated rat CeA neurons with the use of whole cell patch-clamp recording. Saturating concentrations of nimodipine (NIM, 5 microM), a DHP antagonist, blocked 22% of ICa: this NIM-sensitive (L-type) current was recorded in 68% of CeA neurons. The DHP agonist Bay K 8644 (5 microM) produced a 36% increase in ICa in a similar proportion of CeA neurons (70%). omega-Conotoxin GVIA (CgTx GVIA, 1 microM) in saturating concentrations inhibited 30% of ICa, whereas omega-agatoxin IVA (Aga IVA, 100 nM), in concentrations known to block P-type currents, did not affect ICa. Higher concentrations of Aga IVA (1 microM) alone reduced ICa by 34%, but in the presence of NIM (5 microM) and CgTx GVIA (1 microM) blocked only 18% of ICa. omega-Conotoxin MVIIC (CgTx MVIIC, 250 nM) reduced ICa by 13% in the presence of CgTx GVIA (1 microM). Application of NIM (5 mM), CgTx GVIA (1 microM); and Aga IVA (1 microM) blocked approximately 67% of ICa. A similar portion (63%) of Ca2+ current was blocked with CgTx MVIIC (250 nM) in the presence of NIM (5 microM) and CgTx GVIA (1 microM). The current resistant to NIM and the neurotoxins represented 37% of ICa, whereas in neurons not having L-type currents the resistant current made up approximately 53% of ICa (49 +/- 2%, mean +/- SE). The resistant current activated at around -40 mV and peaked at approximately 0 mV with half-activation and -inactivation potentials of -17 and -58 mV and slopes for activation and inactivation of -5 and 13 mV, respectively. The resistant current was sensitive to Cd2+ (IC50 = 2.5 microM) and Ni2+ (IC50 = 86 microM), was larger in Ca2+ than in Ba2+ (ratio = 1.31:1), and showed a moderate rate of decay. In summary, our results show that the high-voltage-activated calcium current in rat CeA neurons is composed of at least four pharmacologically distinct components: L-type current (NIM sensitive, 22%), N-type current (CgTx GVIA sensitive, 30%), Q-type current [Aga IVA (1 microM) and CgTx MVIIC sensitive, approximately 13-18%], and a resistant current (Non-L, -N, and -Q current, 33 approximately 37%), amounting to 37-53% of the total current. The resistant current has some electrophysiological and pharmacological characteristics in common with doe-1, alpha 1E, and R-type calcium currents, but remains unclassified.

Cardiomyopathy in rats with Walker 256 tumor: The potential role of microvascular disease in its genesis

Considering that diffuse abnormalities of myocardial microcirculation with transient ischemia have been suggested to play a role in the genesis of myocytolytic necrosis, characteristic lesion of dilated or congestive cardiomyopathies, and the bloodstream is the most common pathway for dissemination of cancer cells, which gain access to the microcirculation, the present study was undertaken to search for morphologic and electrocardiographic evidence of myocardial damage associated with microcirculatory disease in rats experimentally inoculated with the Walker 256 tumor. Young albino rats inoculated intramuscularly with the Walker 256 tumor developed a cardiomyopathy characterized by diffuse small foci of myocytolytic necrosis, decreased thickness of the mean left midventricular wall associated with reduced size of the minor diameter of myocytes, and electrocardiographic abnormalities reflecting the myocardial damage, correlated with the presence of a microvascular disease, characterized by intramyocardial microvessels (less than 50 μm in diameter) partially or totally occluded because of entrapment of tumor cells and fibrin-platelet/tumor cell-cellular debris thrombi. The occlusive or subocclusive small vessel lesions preceded the development of the myocytolytic necrosis, suggesting that the microvascular disease would play an important role in the process of focal micronecrosis and consequent electrocardiographic changes. However, it must be taken into account that the tumor thromboemboli can generate related factors that could promote cell injury and cell death. In conclusion, the hematogenic dissemination of Walker 256 cells promotes the development of an experimental cardiomyopathy attributable, at least in part, to microvascular obliterative changes in the myocardium.

Reduction of heart lesions after experimental restraint stress: a study in stress-susceptible pigs

Pigs, crossbreeds of Swedish Landrace and Yorkshire, about 6 months old and susceptible to develop malignant hyperthermia when exposed to halothane, were subjected to a 12-min experimental stress provoked by the myorelaxant succinylcholine. The experimental pigs were pre-treated before the stress: five were given propranolol for one week, six were given alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) combined with selenium for 11 days, and five pigs were pre-treated with zinc (ZnSO4) for 1 month. A total of 12 untreated, stress-susceptible pigs served as controls. The blood levels of noradrenaline and adrenaline recorded during the stress were significantly reduced in the groups pre-treated with propranolol or alpha-tocopherol combined with selenium. The results show significant reduction of myocardial necrosis by beta-adrenoceptor-blocking agents and free-radical scavengers during stress-induced increased sympathetic activity.

Inefficiency of bilateral amygdaloid lesions to reduce the transient motor reactions exhibited by swine during exposure to CO2

The aim of the study was to evaluate from the ethical point of view the importance of transient muscular jerks commonly exhibited by swine at an early stage of pre-slaughter CO2-anaesthesia. The influence of 5 min restraint upon plasma concentrations of adrenaline (A) and noradrenaline (NA) was studied in swine (n = 6) before and after bilateral lesioning of the amygdaloid region of the brain, as were the motor reactions of the same and three other animals during 1 min exposure to 80% CO2. The A and NA responses to the restraint became almost extinguished after amygdaloid lesioning in three of the animals, were reduced by about 50% in one swine, whereas no reduction was seen in the other two animals investigated. The amygdaloid lesioning did not visibly influence the latency for, and the duration and intensity of the muscular jerks manifested by the swine during the CO2-exposure. The results do not favour the possibility that transient motor reactions exhibited by swine during pre-slaughter CO2-exposure are manifestations of emotional stress. Instead, the study indirectly supports the idea that the cause of the muscular jerks may be disinhibition of subcortical motor centres being inactivated by the CO2-anaesthesia somewhat later than neocortical cells normally exerting the inhibition.

Stress-induced injury of pig myocardium is accompanied by increased lipid peroxidation and depletion of mitochondrial ATP

The aim of the study was to investigate the mechanisms of myocardial lesions induced by stress in conscious, intact pigs. The animals were subjected to 24 h immobilization, controls were kept in normal conditions. The pigs were killed by electric shock and exsanguination. Lipid peroxidation products: malondialdehyde (MDA), conjugated dienes (CDB), fluorescent end products (RF) and adenine nucleotides (ATP, ADP) were measured in the left ventricular myocardium which was also subjected to histoenzymatic and electron microscopic examination. In stressed animals as opposed to the control group, alterations in ultrastructure and diminution of mitochondrial ATP have been found, together with augmented formation of MDA and CDB reflecting increased free radical generation. These changes may be the component of stress-induced myocardial injury.

Central beta-adrenergic mechanisms may modulate ischemic ventricular fibrillation in pigs

A central noradrenergic process may permit expression of the stress-related increase in cardiac vulnerability to ventricular fibrillation (VF). Thus, the effect of central beta-adrenergic receptor blockade with L-propranolol (0.01 and 0.05 mg/kg) on ischemia-induced VF vulnerability was evaluated in the psychologically stressed pig model and compared with Ringer's solution and D-propranolol (0.05 mg/kg). The ischemia of a maximum 15-minute left anterior descending coronary artery occlusion was used since we previously determined that pigs surviving 15 minutes usually do not fibrillate. Time to the onset of VF was analyzed by time-to-event analysis and ranged from 0.75 to 13.8 minutes in vulnerable pigs. Intracerebroventricular administration of L-propranolol (0.05 mg/kg) prolonged the time to VF compared with Ringer's solution and D-propranolol (p less than 0.05). The high dose of L-propranolol also reduced the incidence of VF (7/15 fibrillated) compared with Ringer's solution (12/12 fibrillated) and D-propranolol (6/7 fibrillated). The lower dose of L-propranolol was without effect on VF vulnerability (7/9) fibrillated). The plasma concentration resulting from central administration of 0.05 mg/kg L-propranolol was found to be 9.05 +/- 3.25 ng/ml, which is significantly below therapeutic antiarrhythmic blood levels. We conclude that the reduced vulnerability to ischemia-induced VF after intracerebroventricular administration of propranolol is due to alteration of a central beta-adrenergic receptor-mediated phenomenon as opposed to an effect on the heart directly or to nonspecific membrane stabilization.

Peptide-containing pathways from the parabrachial complex to the central nucleus of the amygdala

The present investigation was undertaken to examine the organization of peptidergic projections that exist between the parabrachial nuclear complex (PB) and the central nucleus of the amygdala (CNA). The retrograde tracer True Blue was injected into the CNA of adult rats. The brain tissue was then reacted immunocytochemically to localize neurotensin (NT), substance P (SP), methionine enkephalin (ENK), vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP), somatostatin (SS), and cholecystokinin octapeptide (CCK). Following microinjection of True Blue in the CNA, retrogradely-labeled neurons were located primarily in the external lateral subnucleus, abutting the brachium conjunctivum. In animals that received colchicine pretreatment, two populations of neurons, containing either SP or NT, were found to project to the CNA. In addition, cells containing CCK, ENK, VIP, or SS were not found to be a part of this projection system. These data suggest that neurons in the PB project to the CNA and are, in part peptide-containing.

Disordered catecholamine release in pigs susceptible to malignant hyperthermia

Pigs, crossbreeds of Swedish Landrace and Yorkshire, females and castrated males about 6 months old, were exposed to experimental stress. The pigs were either considered normal or shown to be susceptible to develop malignant hyperthermia when tested with halothane at about 6 weeks of age (stress-susceptible pigs). The stress was of the restraint type, produced by two different myorelaxant agents, the depolarizing succinylcholine or the non-depolarizing pancuronium. The blood levels of the catecholamines (CA) noradrenaline (NA) and adrenaline (A) were measured during the stress. The severity of myocardial cell necrosis observed 1 to 2 days after the stress was morphologically graded. In normal pigs the levels of NA during the stress and the degree of myocardial cell necrosis were about the same after both succinylcholine and pancuronium. In stress-susceptible pigs, however, succinylcholine produced very high NA and A levels and severe heart lesions, whereas after pancuronium the NA and A levels were rather low and the heart lesions significantly reduced when compared to those after succinylcholine-induced stress. After pretreatment with dantrolene intravenously the succinylcholine-induced stress only induced slightly increased blood CA levels and no signs of myocardial cell necrosis in pigs susceptible to develop malignant hyperthermia. Dantrolene, an efficient drug in treatment of malignant hyperthermia, probably acts by interfering with release of calcium from the sarcoplasmic reticulum in skeletal muscles. The results indicate that peripheral sympathetic neurones in MHS pigs also react abnormally, probably due to defective calcium turn-over.

Catecholamine-induced free radicals in myocardial cell necrosis on experimental stress in pigs

Normal pigs, crossbreeds of Swedish Landrace and Yorkshire, about 6 months old, were subjected to experimental stress, induced by the myorelaxant succinylcholine, for 12 min. Besides one group of control pigs, one group of pigs were pretreated with alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) combined with selenium (Tokosel Vet) injected i.m. every second day for 11 days, and another group was given zinc (ZnSO4.7H2O) in the fodder for 1 month plus one injection i.p. 2 days before the stress. The stress-induced heart lesions, morphologically graded according to evaluation scores, were significantly reduced in both the pretreated groups when compared with the control pigs. The blood levels of catecholamines (CA) were increased to about the same degree in the three groups during the stress. The protection observed is suggested to be due to the fact that vitamin E, selenium and zinc are involved in systems acting as scavengers of free radicals. The present results together with earlier ones are discussed to support the CA-hypothesis for stress-induced heart lesions: some types of stress can increase the sympathetic activity to such an extent that released CA, via beta-adrenoceptor mechanisms affects the cell metabolism to such a degree that cytotoxic free radicals are formed, producing myocardial cell necrosis.

Cryogenic blockade of the central nucleus of the amygdala attenuates aversively conditioned blood pressure and respiratory responses

The central nucleus of the amygdala (ACE) was reversibly blocked during extinction of an aversively conditioned cardiorespiratory response in unanesthetized, freely moving cats. Cryoprobes were positioned bilaterally in the ACE of 4 cats and in the nucleus entopeduncularis of 1 cat. Blood pressure typically showed biphasic changes in response to the conditioned stimulus (CS) during non-cooling trials. Blood pressure initially dropped and then rose. Heart rate consistently dropped, and respiratory rate increased in response to the CS. ACE cooling did not alter the pre-CS baseline blood pressure, heart rate or respiratory timing, but changed the cardiorespiratory response to the CS. During ACE cooling, blood pressure and respiratory responses were greatly attenuated or abolished. No significant effect on the heart rate response was observed during ACE cooling. Cooling of a nearby structure, the nucleus entopeduncularis, did not affect blood pressure, heart rate or respiratory responses to the CS. These results support the hypothesis that the ACE plays a role in both cardiovascular and respiratory regulation during conditioned aversive responses. The study also suggests that, in cats, the predominant influence of the ACE on cardiovascular control is on blood pressure rather than on heart rate regulation.

Effect of propranolol on myocardial cell necroses and blood levels of catecholamines in pigs subjected to stress

The degree of myocardial cell necroses in pigs exposed to stress induced by a myorelaxant (succinylcholine) for about 12 min. was investigated. The Beta-adrenoceptor block propranolol was given in varying doses prior to the induced stress. The degree of necroses in these pigs was evaluated according to a point scale, ranging from 0 to 6 points, and compared with the changes found in untreated controls following stress. The blood levels of noradrenaline and adrenaline were assayed before, during an immediately after the period of stress. No protective effect of propranolol on the cardiac lesions was found when the drug was administered intravenously in a single dose of either 1 mg or 3 mg per kg. During the period of stress the blood levels of noradrenaline were high, indicating a high degree of activity in the sympatho-adrenal system. Propranolol in a single dose of 10 mg per kg intravenously reduced the number and size of heart lesions, while the blood levels of the catecholamines were lower under stress than after administration of 1 and 3 mg propranolol. After oral treatment with propranolol, 120 mg three times a day for 6 or 7 days, an almost complete absence of heart cell necrosis after the stress was obtained. The activity of the sympatho-adrenal system was elevated, as reflected by the high blood levels of catecholamines. The results indicate that stress-induced heart cell necrosis is mediated via the activity of the sympatho-adrenal system. The difference between a single and repeated doses of propranolol in protecting the heart suggests a complex of the adrenergic Beta-receptor blocker.