Publications

Abstract

Sympathetic nervous activity (SNA) in the liver, heart, pancreas and interscapular brown adipose tissue was examined 60 min after the third cerebroventricular injection of neostigmine (5 x 10(-8) mol) in rats. We employed the technique of specific gas chromatography-mass spectrometry for simultaneous analysis of norepinephrine (NE) and its primary neuronal metabolite, 3,4-dihydroxyphenylethyleneglycol (DHPG) and used the ratio DHPG/NE as an index of SNA. Neostigmine produced significant increases in the DHPG/NE ratio in all tissues investigated. Co-administration of atropine with neostigmine completely inhibited this neostigmine-induced effect. These findings suggest that the central cholinergic-muscarinic activation with neostigmine stimulates SNA in the peripheral tissues examined.