Functional cardiovascular action of L-cysteine microinjected into pressor sites of the rostral ventrolateral medulla of the rat

Yumi Takemoto DOI 10.1007/s00726-013-1651-5 Received: 15 October 2013 / Accepted: 12 December 2013 This article investigated whether L-Cysteine was playing a role in controlling cardiovascular responses in the RVLM. They first identified RVLM using glutamate and then they injected different doses of L-cysteine (1mM -100mM). In order to see if glutamate receptors are playing a role in mediating this response they injected antagonists MK801 for NMDA or CNQX for AMPA and then they repeated the L-cysteine. They found that L-cysteine caused significant increases in arterial blood pressure (ABP) and heart rate (HR). They noticed that only when the antagonists were injected together that the L-cysteine actions were blocked. These data suggest that L-cysteine mediates it effects on the cardiovascular system by acting on NMDA and non NMDA receptors.-MD