Evidence for the involvement of imidazoline receptors in the central hypotensive effect of rilmenidine in the rabbit

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Abstract
1 Rilmenidine has recently been introduced as a new centrally-acting antihypertensive agent. We examined its cardiovascular effects after intracerebral injection to anaesthetized rabbits. Cumulative doses of rilmenidine injected intracisternally (1 to 300 μg kg−1) led to dose-dependent decreases in arterial blood pressure and heart rate. The effective doses of rilmenidine were lower when injected centrally than when injected intravenously. 2 Pretreatment with the same dose of yohimbine or idazoxan shifted the rilmenidine dose-response curves for its hypotensive and bradycardic effects to the right. Idazoxan, which has an imidazoline structure, proved to be a more active antagonist than yohimbine of rilmenidine centrally-mediated cardiovascular effects. 3 The dose-response curve for the central hypotensive effect of rilmenidine was also shifted to the right after pretreatment with a bovine brain extract. This extract contains the endogenous ligand of the imidazoline-preferring receptors which is not a catecholamine. 4 Rilmenidine, like clonidine, proved to be active when micro-injected into the rabbit nucleus reticularis lateralis region. 5 In conclusion, rilmenidine exhibited in the rabbit a central hypotensive effect which originated in the same area as where clonidine acts. Specific imidazoline-preferring receptors appear to be involved in this hypotensive effect.