Trigeminally induced cardiovascular reflex responses in spinalized rats

Abstract

The effects on cardiovascular functions of noxious stimulation to the orofacial areas innervated by trigeminal afferent nerves were analyzed in urethane-anesthetized, spinal cord-intact rats and in rats acutely spinalized at the second cervical level. In the spinal cord-intact rats, pinching of the upper lip produced increases in both heart rate (HR) and mean arterial pressure (MAP). Both responses were considered to be due to activation of sympathetic efferent nerves to the cardiovascular organs. Both responses were attenuated but did not disappear after spinalization at the C2 level. In spinalized rats, sympathetic preganglionic neurons emerging from the thoracolumbar spinal cord could not receive any neural influences from the brain. The HR response in the spinal rats was abolished after either bilateral vagotomy or intravenous injection of a peripherally acting muscarinic cholinergic receptor antagonist, methylatropine. This suggests that the increase in HR was elicited via vagal cholinergic efferent fibers, probably by decreasing tonic activity of vagus nerves to the heart. In spinal rats, neither vagotomy nor cholinergic blockade affected the increase in MAP, but i.v. injection of the vasopressin V1 receptor antagonist, OPC-21268, abolished the response of MAP. This suggests that the response of MAP was due to peripheral vasoconstriction elicited by vasopressin secreted from the posterior pituitary lobe. The present study demonstrated that, in rats acutely spinalized at the C2 level, noxious stimulation of orofacial areas innervated by the trigeminal nerve could produce reflex increases both in HR, by decreasing cholinergic vagal nerve activity to the heart, and blood pressure, by secreting vasopressin from the pituitary gland, even though sympathetic efferent innervation to the cardiovascular organs could not be directly affected by trigeminal afferent nerve excitation.