Effect of long-term forced oral barbital administration on endogenous acetylcholine in different regions of rat brain.
Rats received a solution of sodium barbital as their only drinking fluid for 25 and 30 weeks. Four groups were studied: (1) control; (2) barbital until sacrifice; (3) barbital withheld (abstinent) for 3 days; (4) abstinent for 12 days. Abstinence convulsions in groups 3 and 4 were recorded with jiggle cages. The rats were killed by decapitation and the concentration of acetylcholine (ACh) was measured in 3 parts of the brain: striatum, hippocampus + cerebral cortex, cerebellum + medulla oblongata + midbrain. In animals receiving barbital until sacrifice, no significant change in ACh content was found in any of the brain regions compared with controls. In animals abstinent for 3 days and with a maximal frequency of spontaneous convulsions a decreased content of ACh (--35%) was found in the striatum. On the 12th day of abstinence, when the convulsive activity clearly had decreased, the ACh content was still decreased (--30%) in the striatum and a significant decrease compared with controls was also found in the cerebellum + medulla oblongata + midbrain.
D000109:Acetylcholine / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D001462:Barbital / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001463:Barbiturates / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001923:Brain Chemistry / Q000187:drug effects*; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000187:drug effects; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000187:drug effects; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000187:drug effects; D004361:Drug Tolerance; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008526:Medulla Oblongata / Q000187:drug effects; D008636:Mesencephalon / Q000187:drug effects; D051381:Rats; D013375:Substance Withdrawal Syndrome; D013997:Time Factors
D001463:Barbiturates; D001462:Barbital; D000109:Acetylcholine