Serotoninergic Modulation of Basal Cardiovascular Responses and Responses Induced by Isotonic Extracellular Volume Expansion in Rats

Background: Isotonic blood volume expansion (BVE) induced alterations of sympathetic and parasympathetic activity in the heart and blood vessels, which can be modulated by serotonergic pathways. Objective: To evaluate the effect of saline or serotonergic agonist (DOI) administration in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN) on cardiovascular responses after BVE. Methods: We recorded pulsatile blood pressure through the femoral artery to obtain the mean arterial pressure (MAP), systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), heart rate (HR) and the sympathetic-vagal ratio (LF/HF) of Wistar rats before and after they received bilateral microinjections of saline or DOI into the PVN, followed by BVE. Results: No significant differences were observed in the values of the studied variables in the different treatments from the control group. However, when animals are treated with DOI followed by BVE there is a significant increase in relation to the BE control group in all the studied variables: MBP (114.42 +/- 7.85 vs 101.34 +/- 9.17); SBP (147.23 +/- 14.31 vs 129.39 +/- 10.70); DBP (98.01 +/- 4.91 vs 87.31 +/- 8.61); HR (421.02 +/- 43.32 vs 356.35 +/- 41.99); and LF/HF ratio (2.32 +/- 0.80 vs 0.27 +/- 0.32). Discussion: The present study showed that the induction of isotonic BVE did not promote alterations in MAP, HR and LF/HF ratio. On the other hand, the injection of DOI into PVN of the hypothalamus followed by isotonic BVE resulted in a significant increase of all variables. Conclusion: These results suggest that serotonin induced a neuromodulation in the PVN level, which promotes an inhibition of the baroreflex response to BVE. Therefore, the present study suggests the involvement of the serotonergic system in the modulation of vagal reflex response at PVN in the normotensive rats.