Cardiovascular Alterations during the Interictal Period in Awake and Pithed Amygdala-Kindled Rats
Abstract
Epileptic seizures are often accompanied by increased sympathetic cardiovascular activity (even interictally), but it remains unknown whether this increased activity is of central and/or peripheral origin. Hence, this study investigated the cardiovascular alterations produced by amygdala kindling in awake and pithed Wistar rats. Blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) were initially recorded by tail cuff plethysmography in awake control, sham-operated and amygdala-kindled rats before and 24 hr after the kindling process. The after-discharge threshold (ADT) was measured under different conditions to correlate brain excitability with BP and HR in kindled rats. Twenty-four hours after the last kindling seizure, (i) HR, systolic and diastolic BP were increased and (ii) only higher HR values correlated with lower ADT values. Forty-eight hr after the last kindled seizure, all rats were pithed and prepared for analysing the tachycardic, vasopressor and vasodepressor responses by (i) stimulation of the sympathetic or sensory vasodepressor CGRPergic out-flows (stimulus-response curves, S-R curves) and (ii) intravenous injections of noradrenaline or α-CGRP (dose-response curves, D-R curves). Interestingly, (i) the tachycardic S-R and D-R...Continue Reading
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