Norepinephrine uptake modi®cations in circumventricular organs, pons and myelencephalic areas and nuclei in prehepatic portal hypertensive rats

FERNADEZ BE; VATTA MS; RODRIGUEZ FERMEPIN M; BIANCIOTTI LG; ROMAY S; EIZAYAGA F; PERAZZO JC; LEMBERG A

NEUROCHEMISTRY INTERNATIONAL

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Año: 1999 vol. 34 p. 177 - 181

0197-0186

Peripheral noradrenergic activity is enhanced in portal hypertension and correlates with the progression of the disease.However, little is known about the status of central norepinephrine (NE) in portal hypertension. The aim of the present workwas to study the uptake of NE in several areas rich in NE in experimental prehepatic portal hypertension. The experiments wereperformed in vitro in several encephalic areas and nuclei, obtained according to the `punch-out technique'. Results showed thatin portal hypertensive rats NE uptake enhanced in all areas and nuclei studies (subfornical organ, organum vasculosum laminaterminalis, area postrema, locus coeruleus and nucleus tractus solitarius). The present results suggest that these encephalic areasand brainstem nuclei may be related to the development and/or maintenance of portal hypertension in this animal model.