Clonidine attenuates wet-dog shaking induced by hippocampal stimulation in rats.
The effect of an alpha 2-adrenoceptor agonist, clonidine on wet-dog shaking (WDS; also, WDS = wet-dog shakes) induced by electrical stimulation of the hippocampus was investigated. Clonidine (0.01-0.32 mg/kg i.p.) inhibited the appearance of WDS in a dose-dependent manner without showing any effect on hippocampal afterdischarge. Although clonidine has been reported to inhibit the activity not only of noradrenergic but also of serotonergic neurons, a 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) antagonist, cinanserin at doses up to 32 mg/kg had no significant effect on hippocampal stimulation-induced WDS. Therefore, a possible anti-5-HT action of clonidine in the inhibition of WDS can be excluded. The WDS inhibition produced by clonidine was blocked significantly by pretreatment of the rats with an alpha 2-adrenoceptor antagonist, yohimbine, but not with a narcotic antagonist, naloxone. The present results suggest that a central noradrenergic function may be involved in WDS induced by hippocampal stimulation.
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects*; D002928:Cinanserin / Q000494:pharmacology; D003000:Clonidine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D004567:Electrodes, Implanted; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains
D002928:Cinanserin; D003000:Clonidine