Dexamethasone attenuates the modulatory effect of the insular cortex on the baroreflex in anesthetized rat.

The arterial baroreflex (BR) is an important neural mechanism for the stabilization of arterial pressure (AP). It is known that the insular cortex (IC) and other parts of the central autonomic network (CAN) are able to modulate the BR arc, altering baroreflex sensitivity (BRS). In addition, the sensitivity of the BR changes under the influence of hormones, in particular glucocorticoids (GCs).

Interleukin-1beta suppresses the ventilatory hypoxic response in rats via prostaglandin-dependent pathways.

We investigated the effect of the major inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1beta (IL-1β) on the ventilatory response to hypoxia. The goal was to test the hypothesis that IL-1β impairs the hypoxic ventilatory response in vivo by indirectly inhibiting respiratory neurons in the brainstem via prostaglandins. Thus, IL-1β was delivered by cerebroventricular injection, and the ventilatory hypoxic response was assessed in anesthetized, spontaneously breathing rats pretreated with or without diclofenac, a nonspecific inhibitor of prostaglandin synthesis.