Mechanisms of pressor and bradycardic responses to L-glutamate microinjected into the NTS of conscious rats.

Microinjection of increasing doses of L-glutamate (L-Glu, 0.03-5.0 nmol/100 nl) into the nucleus tractus solitarii (NTS) produced a dose-related pressor and bradycardic response. Prazosin virtually abolished the pressor response but produced no changes in the bradycardic response to L-Glu, indicating that bradycardia is not reflex in origin. The bradycardic response was blocked by atropine. In three different groups of rats, excitatory amino acid receptors in the NTS were blocked by increasing doses of kynurenic acid (0.5, 2.0, and 10.0 nmol/100 nl) and the pressor and bradycardic responses to L-Glu (1 nmol/100 nl) were reduced in a dose-related pattern. Reflex bradycardia induced by an increase in pressure caused by phenylephrine (iv) was also blocked by kynurenic acid. These data show that microinjection of L-Glu into the NTS of conscious rats produced pressor and bradycardic responses, which are due to the activation of two independent autonomic pathways. The data also indicate that the activation of both pathways is mediated by excitatory amino acid receptors. Considering that reflex bradycardia was also blocked by kynurenic acid, we suggest that L-Glu and excitatory amino acid receptors are part of the parasympathetic limb of the baroreceptor reflex. The pressor response to L-Glu is also mediated by excitatory amino acid receptors, but its physiological meaning is still unclear.