Dopaminergic and antidopaminergic effects on heart rate in healthy horses when challenged with brief 2-minute exercise bouts

Bromocriptine is a dopamine receptor agonist known to cause hypotension and bradycardia in several species. Five experiments were conducted to compare possible perturbations on heart rate (HR) in horses after a brief (2 minute) exercise bout when exposed to either short-term or long-term treatment with bromocriptine, cabergoline, or pergolide (all commonly used dopaminergic agonists in horses) or sulpiride, a dopaminergic antagonist. For all experiments, prolactin was measured as an indicator of drug efficacy.
Source: Journal of Equine Veterinary Science - Category: Veterinary Research Authors: Tags: Original Research Source Type: research