Epicardial serotonin receptors in circulatory control in conscious Sprague-Dawley rats

To investigate cardiac chemoreceptors in rats a catheter was chronically implanted into the pericardial sac via the thymus. Intrapericardial (ipc) injection of 200 microliters isotonic saline vehicle did not alter arterial blood pressure, heart rate, right atrial pressure, or respiratory rate. Phenyl biguanide (PBG) and nicotine (NIC) were injected into the pericardial sac. In intact rats anesthetized with methohexital sodium, 90 micrograms PBG ipc decreased blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), and renal nerve activity (RNA), whereas 300 micrograms NIC ipc increased BP and decreased HR and RNA. Sinoaortic baroreceptor denervation (SAD) did not affect the responses to PBG and abolished only the HR response to NIC. When vagotomy was added to SAD, all responses to intrapericardial PBG were abolished, but the increase in BP and decrease in RNA resulting from intrapericardial NIC persisted. In SAD rats anesthetized with methohexital, PBG produced dose-dependent decreases in BP and RNA, whereas NIC produced dose-dependent increases in BP and decreases in RNA; the serotonin (5-HT3) antagonist MDL 72222 (80 micrograms ipc) abolished the responses to PBG but not to NIC. MDL 72222 inhibited BP and RNA responses to PBG to a similar extent in conscious and anesthetized SAD rats. Anesthesia attenuated the magnitude and time course of BP and RNA responses to PBG compared with the conscious state. In conclusion, 1) sympathoinhibitory responses to intrapericardial PBG and NIC are mediated by epicardial receptors with different afferent neural pathways, PBG by cardiac vagal afferents and NIC by nonvagal, possibly cardiac sympathetic afferents; 2) PBG exerts its effects via epicardial 5-HT3 receptors; 3) anesthesia attenuates the responses to PBG.