title: The insular cortex modulates cardiovascular responses to acute restraint stress in rats.
abstract: Acute restraint is an unavoidable stress situation that evokes marked and sustained cardiovascular changes, which are characterized by blood pressure and heart rate increases. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that insular cortex mediates cardiovascular responses to acute restraint stress in rats. To that purpose, the insular cortex synaptic transmission was inhibited by bilateral microinjection of the nonselective synaptic blocker cobalt chloride (CoCl2, 1 mM/100 nL). Insular cortex pretreatment with CoCl2 decreased restraint-evoked pressor and tachycardiac responses, thus indicating an involvement of synapses within the insular cortex on the modulation of cardiovascular responses to restraint stress. The present results indicate that insular cortex synapses exert a facilitatory influence on blood pressure and HR increase evoked by acute restraint stress in rats.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, SP 14049-900, Brazil.
authors.forename: Fernando H F
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: Alves
authors.forename: Carlos C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Crestani
authors.forename: Fernando M A
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Corrêa
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D002319:Cardiovascular System / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000187:drug effects / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003035:Cobalt / Q000494:pharmacology; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012149:Restraint, Physical / Q000379:methods; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology
chemical_list: D003035:Cobalt; C018021:cobaltous chloride