Acute effects of ethanol on baroreceptor reflex control of heart rate and on pressor and depressor responsiveness in rats

Abstract

In rats anesthetized with α-chloralose, doses of 0.1, 0.5, and 1 g/kg of ethanol produced an upward shift of baroreflex curves constructed by plotting the heart rate response against mean arterial pressure following evoked rises in mean arterial pressures by phenylephrine or angiotensin II. Whereas the upward shift of baroreceptor curves may be related, at least in part, to a higher base-line heart rate after ethanol, the data showed that the 1 g/kg dose of ethanol significantly depressed baroreflex sensitivity, suggesting that higher doses of ethanol impair baroreflex-mediated bradycardia. The phenylephrine, but not the angiotensin II or the nitroprusside, dose–response curves were shifted to the right after ethanol, indicating a decreased pressor responsiveness and suggesting that ethanol may have α-adrenergic blocking activity. This effect was also obtained in conscious rats. That this effect was not influenced by changes in baroreflex sensitivity was supported by the finding that a similar shift of the phenylephrine pressor–response curve was obtained in bilaterally vagotomized and hexamethonium-treated rats. Whether this effect of ethanol on baroreflex control of heart rate was influenced by anesthesia was investigated in conscious rats; the 1 g/kg dose of ethanol that produced the most significant decrease in baroreflex sensitivity was used in these experiments. Ethanol was still able to significantly inhibit baroreflex sensitivity in conscious rats, but the upward shift of the baroreflex curve and the elevated base-line heart rate no longer occurred. On the other hand, none of the three doses of ethanol had any significant effect on baroreflex-mediated tachycardia (in response to nitroprusside-evoked hypotension). The data suggest that high doses of ethanol selectively inhibit baroreflex-mediated bradycardia and that ethanol has an α-blocking-like activity in conscious and anesthetized rats.