Pharmacological Evidence that Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide is Implicated in Cerebral Autoregulation

In the present study, it was aimed to asses the possibility that calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) released in response to transient hypotension may contribute to the reflex autoregulation of cerebral blood flow as a putative modulator. Changes in pial arterial diameter (mean, 33.0 ${\pm}$ 1.1 $\mu\textrm{m}$) with changes in systemic arterial blood pressure (mean, 101.9 ${\pm}$ 2.7 mmHg) were observed directly through a closed cranial window in anesthetized normotensive rats. Image of the pial vessels was captured with a stereoscope connected to a CCD video camera and the diameter was measured with a microscaler. In the capsaicin-treated rats (one day prior to experiment, 50 nmol capsaicin injected intracisternally), both vasodilater and vasoconstrictor responses evoked by a transient hypotension and the reverse of blood pressure were markedly attenuated or almost abolished. When changes in pial arterial diameter were plotted as a function of changes in blood pressure, the slopes of both regression lines (for vasodilators and vasoconstrictors ) were markedly reduced. Similar reductions were evidenced under treatment wi th the CGRP antibody serum (1:1,000) and following CGRP receptor desensitization. However, the autoregulatory mechanics were neither affected by treatment wi th spantide (1 ${\mu}$M), substance P antagonist, nor by substance P receptor desensitization. Suffusion wi th mock cerebrospinal fluid containing CGRP and cromakalim caused a vasodilatation in a concentration-dependent manner, respectively and their effects were antagonized by glibenclamide. Substance P produced a vasodilatation, which was, however, little affected by glibenclamide. These observations indicate that the CGRP released from the perivascular sensory fibers in response to a hypotension is implicated in the modulation of the autoregulation of cerebral blood flow.