The cardiovascular responses of conscious newborn lambs treated in utero with 6-hydroxydopamine.

Fourteen fetal sheep were treated in utero with a single intramuscular injection or three to four injections of 6-hydroxydopamine. After birth the cardiovascular responses of these lambs to adrenergic drugs were studied and compared with the cardiovascular responses of untreated newborn lambs. Lambs which received three to four injections of 6-hydroxydopamine were more sensitive to the pressor actions of noradrenaline and phenylephrine than were control lambs or lambs which received a single injection of 6-hydroxydopamine. The supersensitivity to noradrenaline persisted in multiple treatment lambs until at least 5 months of age. Lambs which received multiple injections of 6-hydroxydopamine were also subsensitive to the pressor action of tyramine. The sensitivity to the pressor actions of noradrenaline and phenylephrine in lambs which received a single injection of 6-hydroxydopamine lay between that of control and multiple treatment groups. Despite the pharmacological evidence of impairment of sympathetic innervation of peripheral blood vessels plus a lack of responsiveness of these lambs to alpha-adrenergic blockade with phentolamine, treated lambs had arterial pressures and heart rates similar to control lambs. As well, treated lambs showed no impairment in their ability to reflexly regulate heart rate in response to changes in arterial pressure, which is consistent with the recently reported vagal control of the cardiac baroreceptor reflex.