Differential patterns of local cerebral glucose utilization in response to 5-hydroxytryptamine agonists

Local cerebral glucose utilization was measured in parallel groups of conscious rats following intravenous injection of either 1 mg/kg 8-hydroxy-2-(di-N-propylamino)tetralin (a 5-hydroxytryptamine 1A binding site agonist), 3 mg/kg 5-methoxy 3-(1,2,3,6-tetrahydro-4-pyridinyl)1H indole, succinate (a 5-hydroxytryptamine1B agonist), or saline alone, using the 2-deoxyglucose quantitative autoradiographic techniques (n = 5 in each of the three groups). Following both drugs, local rates of glucose use in the majority of the 72 brain areas analysed remained unaltered, but in some other regions either increases or decreases were observed. In keeping with the observed behavioural response to 8-hydroxy-2-(di-N-propylamino)tetralin there were marked increases in cerebellum (+56%) and motor cortex where a columnar arrangement of increased metabolism (+34%) contrasted with adjacent columns of decrease (-26%). Hippocampal areas showed moderate decreases in glucose use (-13 to -21%). All areas which increased following 8-hydroxy-2-(di-N-propylamino)tetralin also increased following 5-methoxy 3-(1,2,3,6-tetrahydro-4-pyridinyl)1H indole, succinate, but in the latter case all elements of the basal ganglia were also increased, including globus pallidus (+105%) and the striatum where the changes (+54%) were limited to a discrete dorsal region of the nucleus. In the hippocampus only dorsal dentate gyrus was decreased (-24%) whilst a moderate increase (+16%) was observed in dorsal subiculum. The complexity of these results contrasts with previous 2-deoxyglucose investigations where less specific 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor ligands were used, and suggests that certain aspects of brain function may be selectively targeted by systemic pharmacological manipulation of endogenous serotonergic systems.