Summary
Rats were injected i.p. with pentobarbitone sodium 40 mg/kg or were exposed to diethyl ether anaesthesia for 15 to 60 min. Monoamine synthesis in vivo was measured in various brain regions by determining the accumulation of dopa and 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) during 15 or 30 min after the i.p. injection of NSD 1015 (3-hydroxybenzylhydrazine HCl, 100 mg/kg), an inhibitor of the aromatic amino acid decarboxylase.
Pentobarbitone retarded the formation of dopa and 5-HTP by about 25% in most brain regions but had no effect on striatal dopa formation.
Ether accelerated the formation of dopa and 5-HTP in most brain regions, the action on striatal dopa being most pronounced (to 250% of control). The effect was generally somewhat less marked during the second than during the first half-hour of anaesthesia. A postanaesthetic inhibition of dopa formation was found in the striatum and of 5-HTP formation in whole brain.
If hypothermia was allowed to develop, the stimulating action of ether on dopa and 5-HTP formation tended to be partly antagonized. A complex interaction between NSD 1015 and the hypothermic response to ether was observed.
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Lindqvist, M., Kehr, W. & Carlsson, A. Effect of pentobarbitone and diethyl ether on the synthesis of monoamines in rat brain. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Arch. Pharmacol. 284, 263–277 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00500346
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00500346