Central injection of angiotensin II alters catecholamine activity in rat brain

Centrally injected angiotensin II (ANG II) produces a pressor response. The effect of ANG II injected intracerebroventricularly on catecholamine utilization in specific rat brain regions was examined. A pressor dose of ANG II stimulated an increase in norepinephrine (NE) utilization in the locus coeruleus, raphe magnus and AI regions of the brain stem, and in the hypothalamus. These increases in NE utilization were selective, and dopamine utilization was not altered in the same regions. Also, the changes in NE utilization were direct and not due to the rise in blood pressure caused by ANG II, since a similar pressor effect caused by intravenously injected hypertonic saline did not alter NE utilization in any of the above regions. Areas such as the subfornical organ and organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis that contain both catecholamines and ANG II receptors did not show a substantial change in catecholamine utilization after intracerebroventricularly injected ANG II. This study demonstrates that specific brain NE rich regions are activated by intracerebroventricular injection of ANG II. Some of these regions correlate with known blood pressure control centers and the data points to brain catecholaminergic regions which are involved in the central ANG II pressor response.