Blood--brain barrier sodium/potassium pump: modulation by central noradrenergic innervation

The active transport of Na+ and K+ across the blood--brain barrier by the membrane-bound enzyme Na+/K+-activated ATPase of brain microvessel endothelial cells has a major role in the maintenance of brain water and electrolyte homeostasis. To test whether the putative noradrenergic innervation of cerebral microvessels from the nucleus locus ceruleus contributes to the regulation of Na+/K+-ATPase activity of the blood--brain barrier, specific [3H]ouabain-binding studies were performed on cerebral microvessels and crude cortical membranes obtained from Wistar rats with unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine lesion of the nucleus locus ceruleus. Such lesion depleted norepinephrine by about 90% in the ipsilateral cerebral cortex without affecting the contralateral cortex. [3H]Ouabain binding to membranes of cerebral cortex and the cerebral microvessels was specific and saturable. The maximal ouabain-binding capacity in microvessels of the ipsilateral, norepinephrine-depleted, cerebral cortex was reduced by about 40%, without change in the affinity of binding. [3H]Ouabain binding to crude membrane fractions of the cerebral cortex was not significantly affected by locus ceruleus lesion. The results suggest that Na+/K+-ATPase activity of cerebral microvessels, and the consequent transport of Na+ and K+ across the blood--brain barrier, is modulated by noradrenergic innervation from the locus ceruleus.