Changes in cardiac and hypothalamic noradrenergic activity with taurine in DOCA-salt rats
Fujita, T.; Sato, Y.; Ando, K.
American Journal of Physiology 251(5 Pt 2): H926-H933
1986
ISSN/ISBN: 0002-9513 PMID: 2877584 Document Number: 270093
Male Sprague-Dawley rats weighing 120 to 130 g were given weekly injections of 25 mg deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA) and 8 mg sodium chloride in 1 ml water for 4 weeks. They had 1% NaCl in their drinking water and some had 1% taurine. Taurine reduced blood pressure when it was given after DOCA-NaCl hypertension had been established and attenuated the increased depressor response to hexamethonium-induced ganglion blockade in the same rats. At 23 degrees C, norepinephrine turnover in the heart was accelerated and that in the hypothalamus was delayed in DOCA-NaCl rats compared with values in control; taurine returned both towards normal. Stimulation of sympathetic discharge by exposure to 4 degrees for 6 h after alpha -methyl-p-tyrosine was given produced depletion of norepinephrine in most tissues. This deficit in the heart and hypothalamus was greater in DOCA-NaCl rats than in controls but was returned to the control value when taurine was given.