[Prevention of arrhythmia in acute ischemia in conscious animals using a serotonin analog]

The state of the serotonergic system was studied in adaptation of rats to short-term non-damaging stress actions along with the possibility of protecting the heart of conscious animals against arrhythmias in acute ischemia with the serotonin analogue 4-nitro-5-methoxytryptamine. It was shown that the adaptation resulted in a significant increase in rat midbrain serotonin by 70%. Preliminary administration of the serotonin analogue 3 fold reduced the total duration of arrhythmias and approximately 5 fold--the heart fibrillation rate and the death rate of animals in acute ischemia. The data obtained are in agreement with the idea on the role of stress-limiting systems in prevention of stress-induced and ischemic damages of the organism. They show that protective effects of metabolites of these systems can be successfully reproduced with their synthetic analogues or activators.