Regional haemodynamic effects of human α‐ and β‐calcitonin gene‐related peptide in conscious Wistar rats

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Abstract
1 A comparative study was carried out to assess the regional haemodynamic effects of intravenous infusion of human α- and β-calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP; 0.006, 0.06 and 0.6 nmol h−1) in conscious, unrestrained Wistar rats. 2 With human α-CGRP, tachycardia was always accompanied by a fall in mean arterial blood pressure (MBP), but human β-CGRP at the middle dose caused tachycardia with no significant hypotension. 3 Human α- and β-CGRP both caused dose-dependent falls in MBP accompanied by common carotid and hindquarters vasodilatations and increased flows. The highest dose of α- and β-CGRP caused mesenteric vasoconstriction and renal vasodilatation, but the latter was not associated with an increase in flow. 4 With the intermediate dose, human α-CGRP caused more significant haemodynamic changes than did human β-CGRP. In addition, comparison with previous experiments involving infusion of rat α-CGRP indicated that human α-CGRP had more potent haemodynamic effects than the former.