Abdominal vagal mediation of the satiety effects of CCK in rats

CCK type 1 (CCK1) receptor antagonists differing in blood-brain barrier permeability were used to test the hypothesis that satiety is mediated in part by CCK action at CCK1 receptors on vagal sensory nerves innervating the small intestine. Devazepide penetrates the blood-brain barrier; A-70104, the dicyclohexylammonium salt of Nα-3-quinolinoyl-d-Glu- N,N-dipentylamide, does not. At dark onset, non-food-deprived control rats and rats with subdiaphragmatic vagotomies received a bolus injection of devazepide (2.5 μmol/kg iv) or a 3-h infusion of A-70104 (3 μmol·kg−1·h−1 iv) either alone or coadministered with a 2-h intragastric infusion of peptone (0.75 or 1 g/h). Food intake was determined from continuous computer recordings of changes in food bowl weight. In control rats both antagonists stimulated food intake and attenuated the anorexic response to intragastric infusion of peptone. In contrast, only devazepide was effective in stimulating food intake in vagotomized rats. Thus endogenous CCK appears to act both at CCK1 receptors beyond the blood-brain barrier and by a CCK1 receptor-mediated mechanism involving abdominal vagal nerves to inhibit food intake.

Roles of right versus left vagal sensory nerves in cardiopulmonary reflexes of conscious dogs

This study examined the relative roles of the right vs. left vagi in mediating the inhibitory influence of vagal sensory input on sympathetic outflow to the cardiovascular system. This objective was pursued through examination of responses to 1) interruption of tonic vagal input and 2) intracoronary administration of veratridine (Bezold-Jarisch effect). Bilateral vagal cold block (BVB) (n = 16) increased arterial pressure 25 +/- 3 mmHg and heart rate 66 +/- 7 beat/min, whereas right vagal cold block (RVB) and left vagal cold block (LVB) increased arterial pressure 13 +/- 2 and 4 +/- 2 mmHg, respectively. The relative differences in the change in mean arterial pressure were independent of heart rate since similar changes in arterial pressure were observed with preelevation of heart rate with atropine. Sinoaortic baroreceptor denervation augmented the pressure responses approximately fourfold, with the relative pressure changes produced by BVB, RVB, or LVB remaining proportionally the same. Intracoronary administration of veratridine (0.1 g/kg) produced a hypotension action (-44 +/- 6 mmHg), bradycardia (-48 +/- 8 beat/min), and a negative intropic effect (-482 +/- 68 mmHg/s, left ventricular (LV) (dP/dt)max. During RVB the depressor effect of veratridine was reduced to -18 +/- 5 mmHg, and changes in heart rate or LV (dP/dt)max were abolished. Veratridine administration during LVB decreased arterial pressure (-39 +/- 6 mmHg), heart rate (-22 +/- 6 beat/min), and LV (dP/dt)max (-250 +/- 60 mmHg). We conclude that in the conscious dog the tonic inhibitory influence of vagal afferent nerves on vasomotor outflow is predominantly associated with the right vagus as in Bezold-Jarisch effect.