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  • Title: Inhibition of nitric oxide synthase reduces ultrasonic vocalizations of rat pups.
    Author: Podhorna J, Brown RE.
    Journal: Eur J Pharmacol; 1999 Oct 15; 382(3):143-50. PubMed ID: 10556664.
    Abstract:
    The present study investigated the effects of drugs acting on the brain nitric oxide pathway on ultrasonic vocalizations, body temperature and locomotion in 7-8-day-old rat pups. Both a selective neuronal nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitor (7-nitroindazole) and a non-selective NOS inhibitor (nitro-L-arginine-methyl ester, L-NAME) decreased the number of ultrasonic vocalizations in a dose-dependent manner. The non-selective NOS inhibitor, L-NAME, suppressed not only ultrasonic vocalizations but also locomotion. The inactive isomer of the NOS inhibitor, nitro-D-arginine-methyl ester (D-NAME), and the biological precursor of nitric oxide, L-arginine, had no effect on ultrasonic vocalizations or locomotion. These data indicate that drugs suppressing nitric oxide synthesis produced an anxiolytic effect in rat pups. However, only the selective NOS inhibitor, 7-nitroindazole, was 'anxioselective', i.e., reduced ultrasonic vocalizations without causing sedation. Increased synthesis of nitric oxide in the brain had no apparent behavioral effect in this model.
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