Inhibitory action of dopamine on cat carotid chemoreceptors

1. The influence of some drugs which affect the dopaminergic system was studied on chemosensory responses to dopamine (DA), acetylcholine (ACh), sodium cyanide NaCN) and hypoxia during experiments on pentobarbitone anaesthetized cats in which chemoreceptor activity was recorded from the peripheral end of a sectioned sinus nerve. 2. Spontaneous chemosensory activity was inhibited in a dose-dependent manner by DA (0.5-5 microgram, I.A.). Higher doses (10-50 microgram) caused a delayed increase in discharge and were associated with inconsistent inhibitory responses. 3. The DA antagonist alpha-flupenthixol (0.2 mg/kg, I.A.) blocked the inhibitory response to DA without affecting either the spontaneous discharge frequency or the response to ACh. The effect of NaCN was potentiated, and during hypoxia chemoreceptor activity increased more rapidly, although the maximum frequency attained was not appreciably different from control values. Similar results were obtained with haloperidol (0.5 and 1.0 mg/kg, I.V.). 4. Higher doses of alpha-flupenthixol (0.5-1.0 mg/kg, I.A.) increased spontaneous chemoreceptor activity, but this was regarded as a non-specific effect of the drug since at these doses the inhibitory effect of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) was also abolished. 5. The animals were exposed to alternate periods of hypoxia and hyperoxia following administration of the tyrosine hydroxylase inhibitor alpha-methyl p-tyrosine (AMPT, 0.2-10 mg/kg, I.A.). The inhibitory response previously evoked by amphetamine was abolished, and electron microscopic studies showed a great reduction in the number of dense-cored granules, both of which suggested that DA levels in the carotid body had been substantially reduced. Responses to NaCN and hypoxia were slightly potentiated following AMPT, but neither spontaneous activity nor the response to ACh was affected. 6. Apomorphine (0.05-0.2 mg/kg, I.A.) inhibited the chemoreceptor discharge for up to 45 min, an effect which was antagonized by alpha-flupenthixol (0.2 mg/kg, I.A.), implying it resulted from DA receptor stimulation. Although responses to NaCN, hypoxia and higher doses of ACh were reduced following administration of apomorphine, the reduction was not very marked. 7. These results are not compatible with the theory of Osborne & Butler (1975), that in normoxia DA is tonically released in the carotid body and suppresses spontaneous chemosensory activity. 8. It is concluded that DA modulates chemosensory activity by influencing the rate of increase in discharge, without affecting maximum discharge frequency. The mechanism whereby DA is released in response to increased chemosensory activity remains to be established.