Acute effect of intracerebroventricular administration of lead on the drinking behavior of rats induced by dehydration or central cholinergic and angiotensinergic stimulation

Abstract

In the present paper, the acute effect of third ventricle injections of lead acetate (5, 10, 100, 1000 ng/rat) on the drinking behavior of adult, male, Wistar rats was investigated. Lead generates a prompt and significant reduction in water intake induced by three different circumstances: dehydration (14 h of water deprivation) and after carbachol (2 μg/rat, ICV) or angiotensin II (10 ng/rat, ICV) administration. These results show that lead may produce very fast actions in the central nervous system and suggest that inhibition of water intake by lead may depend on impairment of central cholinergic and/or angiotensinergic functions.