Summary
In rats kept under ordinary laboratory and living conditions the intravenous injection of eserine regularly produced a dose-dependent hypothermic effect. Neostigmine produced variable responses including both hyperthermia and hypothermia. The effect of eserine is most probably due to an activation of central cholinergic processes. The finding that the hypothermic effect of eserine was blocked by atropine and not by methylatropine indicates both the central origin of the effect and the implication of muscarinic receptors in it. Propranolol did not affect the response to eserine, but alpha-receptor blocking agents (phenoxybenzamine, phentolamine), if injected in sufficiently high doses, blocked it. All the adrenergic blockers, particularly the alpha-receptor blockers, were found to produce pronounced hypothermia by themselves.
Eserine was also found to produce a dose-dependent decrease in the oxygen consumption. This effect is most probably crucial for the hypothermic response to eserine, because this substance also produced hypothermia at ambient temperatures close to thermal neutrality. It is supposed that eserine, by activating central cholinergic synapses, produces an inhibition of thermogenesis. In animals kept in cages with warm bases (29–37‡C) eserine produced hyperthermia. This effect was blocked by neither propranolol nor atropine, and it is most probably produced by fasciculations.
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One of the authors (V.M.V.) wishes to thank the Wellcome Trust for a grant which provided part of the equipment used in these experiments. This work was also supported by a research grant from ZMNU.
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Varagić, V.M., Žugić, M. & KaŽić, T. The hypothermic effect of eserine in the rat. Naunyn-Schmiedebergs Arch. Pharmak. 270, 407–418 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01002351
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01002351