Behavioral effects of intracerebral injections of renin and captopril in intact and brain-damaged rats.

Rats with, or without, bilateral lesions of the caudate nucleus received intracaudate injection of either renin or renin plus Captopril (SQ 14225). Following such treatment, animals were impaired on a spatial reversal task compared to controls. We concluded that the putative renin contaminant of nerve growth factor (NGF) does not contribute to behavioral recovery from brain damage observed after NGF injections in other studies. Furthermore, angiotensin II might play a possible role in mediating footshock learning and spatial reversal performance.