Studies on the central integration of excitatory chemoreceptor influences and inhibitory baroreceptor and cardiac receptor influences.
Experiments were performed on cats to explore the integrated cardiovascular responses when excitatory (chemoreceptor) and inhibitory (baroreceptor or cardiac receptor) influences are simultaneously presented to the medullary cardiovascular areas. At a given sinus pressure in the low or medium pressure range, the systemic blood pressure and the vascular resistance were higher when the chemoreceptors were stimulated, while a high, pulsating sinus pressure, i.e.a strong baroreceptor stimulation, could suppress completely even an intense chemoreceptor activation. Thus, the set point and the gain of the baroreflex were increased by a concomitant chemoreceptor activation. These effects are compatible with a simple, mutual 'summation' of excitatory and inhibitory influences on a common population of central vasomotor neurons. The reflex vasodilator effects elicited via vagal cardiac afferents were found to be more effectively suppressed by a concomitant chemoreceptor stimulation than were the baroreceptor effects, provided a primary chemoreceptor response (bradycardia) was at hand, while the heart rate responses were essentially uninfluenced by the prevailing chemoreceptor activity. This chemoreceptor suppression of the reflex vasodilatation from cardiac receptors, which may be of great importance in hypoxic situations, e.g. during a dive, suggests a more complex, neuronal interaction between the two reflex mechanisms in the CNS.
D000344:Afferent Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects; D002339:Carotid Arteries / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D002346:Carotid Sinus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D002415:Cats; D002628:Chemoreceptor Cells / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D005703:Gallamine Triethiodide / Q000494:pharmacology; D006321:Heart / Q000294:innervation*; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000187:drug effects; D006439:Hemodynamics / Q000187:drug effects; D011311:Pressoreceptors / Q000502:physiology*; D013390:Succinylcholine / Q000494:pharmacology; D014628:Vagotomy; D014630:Vagus Nerve / Q000502:physiology; D014655:Vascular Resistance / Q000187:drug effects
D013390:Succinylcholine; D005703:Gallamine Triethiodide