Biphasic effects of systemically administered GABA antagonists on cardiac vagal activity.

Systemic administration of the GABA antagonist picrotoxin 6.0 mg/kg i.v. elicited hypertension and a fall in sinus rate with a return to baseline levels in intact rats. Antagonists of GABA act in the supraspinal CNS to augment sympathetic outflow to the heart and vasculature. Therefore, in this study the spinal cord was transected prior to drug administration in order to eliminate sympathetically mediated effects. In spinal rats, picrotoxin 6.0 mg/kg evoked a biphasic sinus rate response characterized by an initial decrease followed by an increase above baseline sinus rate. Bilateral vagotomy or atropine pretreatment blocked sinus rate changes elicited by picrotoxin, demonstrating that these effects were vagally mediated. Midcollicular decerebration altered the biphasic sinus rate response by preventing the late rise but not the initial decrease in sinus rate. Infusion of another GABA antagonist, bicuculline, elicited a similar biphasic sinus rate response, although the time-course was shorter. Unexpectedly, picrotoxin or bicuculline administration in spinal rats caused an increase in mean blood pressure which was prevented by decerebration and different from that observed in intact rats with respect to time course. In spinal rats pretreatment with a vasopressin antagonist, D(CH2)5Tyr(Me)AVP, blocked the pressor response induced by picrotoxin infusion without altering the biphasic changes in sinus rate. These results suggest that, in the rat: (1) two GABAergic inhibitory mechanisms at different levels of the neuraxis exert opposite effects on cardiac vagal activity; and (2) GABA antagonists may elevate arterial pressure by a mechanism distinct from their previously described sympathoexcitatory effects.