In the present study, we focused on the rostral ventrolateral medulla as a possible site of action for kinins because of its established importance in the central regulation of the cardiovascular system. Unilateral microinjections of 100 pmol to 4 nmol bradykinin into the rostral ventrolateral medulla produced dose-dependent increases in mean arterial pressure in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats, Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats, and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). The doseresponse curves for the hypertensive responses to bradykinin in SD and WKY rats were essentially the same, whereas the hypertensive effect of bradykinin was significantly greater in SHR than in either SD or WKY rats. -bradykinin produced prolonged dose-dependent decreases in mean arterial pressure and heart rate. Blood pressure decreased 70±8 mm Hg and heart rate decreased 49±9 beats per minute in SHR, whereas in WKY rats mean arterial pressure decreased 12±4 mm Hg, with no change in heart rate. In a similar fashion, Hoe 140 caused a 51±7 and 17±3 mm Hg reduction in blood pressure in SHR and WKY rats, respectively. Collectively, these results suggest that a hyperactive kallikrein-kinin system in this region of the brain may be involved in the maintenance of blood pressure in the SHR model. (Hypertension. 1994^3:52-58.)Key Words • kallikrein-kinin system • central nervous system • blood pressure I ncreasing evidence suggests the presence of an endogenous tissue kallikrein-kinin system within the brain. A tissue kallikrein indistinguishable from rat urinary kallikrein has been isolated and characterized in rat brain, and its synthesis is directed in cell-free translation systems by brain mRNA.1 Tissue kallikrein has been localized immunocytochemically in hypothalamic cell bodies and brain ventricular epithelium 2 and quantitated in several other sites by radioimmunoassay techniques.3 Bradykinin-immunoreactive neuronal systems also have been localized immunocytochemically within the brain, 4 and bradykinin has been found in mammalian brain tissue. 5 In addition, the presence of immunoreactive kinin in canine 6 and rat 7cerebrospinal fluid also has been demonstrated. Kininogen has been detected in human cerebrospinal fluid 8 and recently has been localized immunohistochemically in neurons of the hypothalamus of the adult rat. 9 Lastly, the cDNA for the rat bradykinin B2 receptor was recently reported, and an mRNA encoding the bradykinin B2 receptor was found to be present in the rat brain.
10The function or functions of the brain kallikrein-kinin system remain to be defined, although a role for kinins in central cardiovascular regulation has been suggested by pharmacologic studies in which the administration of bradykinin into the central nervous system caused inReceived January 14,1992; accepted in revised form September 16, 1993. From the Department of Pharmacology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston.Correspondence to Philip J. Privitera, PhD, Department of Pharmacology, Medical University of South Carolina, 171 Ashley Ave, Charle...