Angiotensinergic involvement in olfactory function

The olfactory bulbs (OB) from Sprague-Dawley and Wistar-Kyoto rats were frozen and sectioned in a sagittal plane, 20 ..mu.. thick. Sections incubated with /sup 125/-Sar/sup 1/, Ile/sup 8/-AII indicated a high density of AII receptor binding sites in the external layers of the OB. Since the primary olfactory neurons synapse with the mitral cells in these layers, this suggests that AII may affect olfactory input to the OB. To test this hypothesis, male Sprague-Dawley rats, 9-12 weeks of age, n = 8, were administered 0.2 ml of 0.17 M ZnSO/sub 4/ into each nostril to lesion the primary olfactory neurons and their axon terminals in the OB. Rats treated with ZnSO/sub 4/ showed an impairment in their ability to find a buried food pellet, P = 0.041, Mann-Whitney test. Nine days post-treatment, the rats were sacrificed and AII receptors binding in homogenates of the OB was determined. There was a 23% increase (P < 0.05) in AII receptor density in the ZnSO/sub 4/ treated rat OB; it was correlated with the extent of the olfactory deficit, r/sub s/ = .91, Spearman Rank Order Test, P < .01. However, there was a 24% decrease in OB weight in the ZnSO/sub 4/more » group, so the number of AII receptors per OB was unchanged. These data suggest that AII plays a role in olfaction. Localizing AII receptor changes within the OB by quantitative autoradiography will characterize the changes in AII receptor density caused by ZnSO/sub 4/.« less