Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology
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Naunyn Schmiedebergs Arch. Pharmacol. · Jan 1990
Effects of the benzodiazepine receptor agonist midazolam and antagonist flumazenil on 5-hydroxytryptamine release from guinea-pig intestine in vitro. Indirect support for a "natural" benzodiazepine-like substance in the intestine.
Isolated segments of the guinea-pig small intestine and the guinea-pig stomach were vascularly perfused and the release of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid into the portal venous effluent determined by high pressure liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection. Test substances were applied intraarterially. The benzodiazepine receptor agonist, midazolam, concentration-dependently increased (by 58%, at 1 nmol/l) and decreased (by 32%, at 100 nmol/l) the release of 5-HT from small intestine preparations. ⋯ In the absence of tetrodotoxin, flumazenil (10 nmol/l) decreased also the release of 5-HT and its metabolite from the perfused stomach by about 40%, whereas midazolam (1 nmol/l) caused an increase by about 60%. In conclusion, benzodiazepine receptors modulate the previously described intrinsic GABAergic regulation of 5-HT release from enterochromaffin cells in the guinea-pig intestine. It is suggested that an endogenous benzodiazepine-like substance of non-neuronal origin is present in the small intestine and stomach of the guinea-pig.