Pharmacological characteristics of catalepsy induced by intracerebroventricular administration of histamine in mice: the importance of muscarinic step in central cholinergic neurons.

Histamine-induced catalepsy was antagonized potently by scopolamine, an antimuscarinic drug, and partially blocked by sparteine. Neither methylatropine nor antinicotinic drugs could reverse histamine-induced catalepsy. These results indicate the greater importance of muscarinic receptors rather than their nicotinic counterparts in histamine-induced catalepsy. Various antiparkinson drugs, i.e. biperiden and trihexyphenidyl, which have antimuscarinic activity or dopamine agonists, i.e. L-dopa, amantadine and bromocriptine, could antagonize the histamine-induced catalepsy to various degrees. Thus, catalepsy induced by icv histamine can be evoked not only by an activation of the histamine receptor, but also indirectly due to cholinergic and dopaminergic imbalance.