Central pathway for spontaneous and prostaglandin E2-evoked cutaneous vasoconstriction

Abstract

A reduction of heat loss to the environment through increased cutaneous vasoconstrictor (CVC) sympathetic outflow contributes to elevated body temperature during fever. We determined the role of neurons in the dorsomedial hypothalamus (DMH) in increases in CVC sympathetic tone evoked by PGE 2 into the preoptic area (POA) in chloralose/urethane-anesthetized rats. The frequency of axonal action potentials of CVC sympathetic ganglion cells recorded from the surface of the tail artery was increased by 1.8 Hz following nanoinjections of bicuculline (50 pmol) into the DMH. PGE2 nanoinjection into the POA elicited a similar excitation of tail CVC neurons (+2.1 Hz). Subsequent to PGE2 into the POA, ..