ALPHA-MSH-INDUCED BEHAVIOR - CHANGES AFTER DIAZEPAM AND BACLOFEN ADMINISTRATION RELATED WITH CYCLIC-AMP LEVELS

The present work was performed to evaluate the participation of the benzodiacepinic GABA(A) and GABA(B) components upon excessive grooming, locomotion, rearing, and stretching/yawning syndrome induced by the intracerebroventricularly alpha-MSH administration by using GABA(A) and GABA(B) agonists. It also aims at evaluating possible relation between changes in cAMP levels in caudate-putamen and accumbens nuclei and the behavioral responses. Injection of diazepam or baclofen reduced the total behavioral scores in a dose-related manner as well as the cAMP levels with respect to the control values (animals treated with artificial cerebrospinal fluid). When diazepam was tested in animals simultaneously injected with alpha-MSH, behavioral scores decreased with respect to those treated with the peptide alone. Cyclic AMP also decreased after combined treatment (MSH + diazepam).