Blunted responsiveness of posterior hypothalamic norepinephrine to quinpirole in DOCA/NaCl hypertensive rats

Our previous studies have demonstrated that the specific dopamine D2 receptor agonist, quinpirole (LY171555), has a pressor effect in conscious normotensive rats and that this is accompanied by a centrally mediated increase in sympathetic activity and arginine vasopressin release. This pressor response to quinpirole is blunted in the DOCA/NaCl hypertensive rat. To examine the hypothesis that the responsiveness of the central noradrenergic and serotonergic systems to quinpirole treatment is altered in DOCA/NaCl rats, the norepinephrine (NE), serotonin (5-HT) and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) contents of hypothalamic and brainstem areas were measured in 4-week DOCA/NaCl hypertensive and H2O control rats 15 minutes after the intravenous administration of quinpirole (1 mg/kg). The results demonstrate that quinpirole selectively reduced (26%) posterior hypothalamic NE content in control rats, but not in DOCA/NaCl hypertensive rats. The NE content in the spinal cord and 5-HIAA content in the pons were greater in DOCA/NaCl rats than in normotensive controls in both saline and quinpirole treated groups. Our data suggest that the specific D2 agonist may effect its central pressor response by stimulating NE release from posterior hypothalamic area, a "pressor" region of hypothalamus, and that this D2 agonist induced pressor mechanism may be blunted in DOCA/NaCl hypertension.