Naloxone decreases the inhibitory effect of ethanol on the release of arginine-vasopressin induced by physical exercise in man

• Published in: Journal of Neural Transmission Vol. 116; no. 9; pp. 1065 - 1069
• Main Authors: Coiro, Vittorio, Casti, A., Volta, E., Melani, A., Maffei, M. L., Rubino, P., Vacca, P., Saccani-Jotti, G., Volpi, R., Chiodera, P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Vienna Springer Vienna 01.09.2009; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult; Arginine Vasopressin - blood; Arginine Vasopressin - metabolism; Basic Neurosciences; Blood Pressure - drug effects; Carbon Dioxide - metabolism; Central Nervous System Depressants - pharmacology; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Ethanol - pharmacology; Exercise - physiology; Gene Expression Regulation - drug effects; Genetics and Immunology - Short Communication; Heart Rate - drug effects; Humans; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Naloxone - pharmacology; Narcotic Antagonists - pharmacology; Neurology; Neurosciences; Oxygen Consumption - drug effects; Psychiatry; Pulmonary Ventilation - drug effects; Respiration - drug effects; Tidal Volume - drug effects; Time Factors; Young Adult; Physical exercise; Naloxone; Ethanol; Arginine-vasopressin
• ISSN: 0300-9564; 1435-1463
• DOI: 10.1007/s00702-009-0270-5

To establish whether ethanol and/or endogenous opioids play a role in the control of arginine-vasopressin (AVP) response to physical exercise, six healthy men underwent six bicycle-ergometer tests until exhaustion [exercise control test; exercise plus ethanol (50 of 110 ml proof whiskey orally), exercise plus naloxone (2 mg injected plus 5 mg infused or 4 mg injected plus 10 mg infused intravenously] or exercise plus ethanol plus naloxone). Plasma AVP levels, physiological and biochemical variables were measured during tests. Physiological and biochemical variables were similar in all tests. During the control test, exercise significantly increased plasma AVP levels, with a peak value five times higher than baseline. The AVP response to exercise was similar in the presence of naloxone, whereas it was abolished by ethanol. When ethanol tests were repeated in the presence of naloxone, at both lower and higher dose, ethanol inhibition on AVP secretion was only partial, with mean peak responses 2.5 times higher than basal values. Results indicate an ethanol involvement in regulation of the AVP response to physical exercise. Furthermore, naloxone-sensitive endogenous opioids appear to play a role in the mechanism underlying ethanol inhibitory action, but not in mediation of the AVP response to physical exercise.