Carbon monoxide is the heme oxygenase product with a pyretic action: evidence for a cGMP signaling pathway

We have recently reported that the central heme oxygenase (HO) pathway has an important role in the genesis of lipopolysaccharide fever. However, the HO product involved, i.e., biliverdine, free iron, or carbon monoxide (CO), has not yet been identified with certainty. Therefore, in the present stud y, we tested the thermoregulatory effects of all HO products. Body core tem perature (T-c) and gross activity of awake, freely moving rats was measured by biotelemetry. Intracerebroventricular administration of heme-lysinate ( 152 nmol), which induces the HO pathway, evoked a marked increase in T-c, a response that was attenuated by intracerebroventricular pretreatment with the HO inhibitor zinc deuteroporphyrin 2,4-bis glycol (200 nmol), indicatin g that an HO product has a pyretic action in the central nervous system (CN S) of rats. Besides, heme-lysinate also increased gross activity, but no co rrelation was found between this effect and the increase in Tc. Moreover, i ntracerebroventricular biliverdine or iron salts at 152 nmol, a dose at whi ch heme-lysinate was effective in increasing T-c, produced no change in T-c . Accordingly, intracerebroventricular treatment with the iron chelator def eroxamine elicited no change in basal T-c and did not affect heme-induced p yresis. However, heme-induced pyresis was completely prevented by the solub le guanylate cyclase (sGC) inhibitor 1H-[1,2,4] oxadiazolo[ 4,3,-a] quinoxa line-1-one. Because biliverdine and iron had no thermoregulatory effects an d CO produces most of its actions via sGC, these data strongly imply that C O is the only HO product with a pyretic action in the CNS.