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M Daoust

Publications and source records attributed to M Daoust.

58 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

[Alcohol and the serotonin system].

There is considerable evidence from animal and human studies that serotonin plays a role in the modulation of alcohol intake and/or alcohol dependence. Biochemical, behavioral and pharmacological studies both in animal and man had verified this hypothesis. Central and peripheral levels of serotonin and of its metabolite 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) are modified by alcoholisation. Moreover, the use of pharmacological drugs modifying specifically serotonin transmission decreases ethanol intake. Our own studies suggest that a dysfunctioning of serotonin uptake system could be implicated in the individual risk of alcohol dependence. Even if other systems, e.g. amino acids, are involved in the regulation of alcohol behavior, all data are in favor of a modulation of alcohol intake by serotonin transmission.

Alcohol Drinking↗

[Absence of the antihypertensive effect of chronic treatment with prazosin in the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) and their offspring].

Seven consanguine monogamous SHR couples (G 1) were treated from their 5th to their 39th week of age with prazosin, 100 micrograms/kg/day i.p. Male rats were treated without interruption. Treatment was withheld in female rats from delivery to weaning. They were compared to seven similar SHR couples who were only daily i.p. injected with the same volume of solvent. Second (G 2) generation rats (untreated were studied. In G 1 female rats only, prazosin induced a transient decrease in systolic blood pressure (SBP), 6 hours after the injection, at 25 weeks of age. SBP, heart weight/body weight ratio and plasma renin activity remained unchanged at 39 weeks of age. Gestational parameters were not changed by the treatment, and no parameter was changed in G 2 rats. A previous study in the same conditions with another alpha 1-adrenoreceptor blocking agent, nicergoline, showed an inhibition of hypertension development in G 1 rats together with a preventive effect on untreated G 2 SHR (Moore et al., 1983). Thus prazosin failed to produce similar antihypertensive effects both in the treated rats and in their offspring and one can therefore conclude that nicergoline's effects were not only due to alpha 1-adrenoceptor blockade.

Aging↗

[Comparative vasodilator action of 5 vasodilators: dihydroergotoxine, nicergoline, papaverine, naftidrofuryl and buflomedil on the femoral artery of the dog].

1. Papaverine (PAP), Naftidrofuryl (NAF), Buflomedil (BUF), Nicergoline (NIC) and Dihydroergotoxine (DIT) were injected in the dog iliac artery at increasing doses (25, 100, 400, 1600 micrograms . kg-1) successively at 10 minutes intervals and the femoral blood flow was measured with an electromagnetic flowmeter. The same volume of saline was injected in the contralateral iliac artery. Heart rate and radial artery pressure were measured and the femoral resistances computed. Noradrenaline (2 microgram . kg-1) was injected before and after the highest dose of vasodilators. 2. The three muscular vasodilators (PAP, BUF, NAF) had an immediate, powerful, dose-dependent but short lasting effect since only after 1600 microgram . kg-1 of PAP, there was still a significant vasodilator effect after the tenth minute. Little or no effect was observed on systemic blood pressure except for the higher doses of these compounds which produced a slight decrease accompanied by a simultaneous tachycardia. 3. The two ergot derivatives NIC and DHT caused a moderate but much longer acting decrease of femoral resistance although 100 micrograms . kg-1 DHT also caused an increase of the femoral resistance. This biphasic effect has been already described on other experimental models. The higher doses of these compounds decreased systemic blood pressure and produced a slight bradycardia as already reported (Boismare and Lefrancois, 1978; Huchet et al., 1981; Moore et al., 1981). The pressor effect of noradrenaline was reversed by NIC and DHT, confirming their alpha adrenoceptor blocking properties.

Animals↗