title: [Age related changes of regulatory mechanisms of cardio-vascular system and significance of nitric oxide synthase in the norm and pathology].
abstract: The article sums up results of thirty-year period of studies of ontogenesis of autonomic nervous system conducted in laboratory of neuromorphology and electron microscopy. It contains discussion of pre- and postnatal ontogenesis of cardiovascular innervation and content of NO-synthase in cardiac ganglia at normal and pathological states. The studies included analysis of 12 series of human germs, examination of cardiovascular system of 23 human fetuses, and of material of 124 early autopsies of persons of different age who died suddenly or of some cardiac diseases. Methods of investigation included neurohistological, histochemical, and ultrastructural techniques; NO-synthase content was measured immunohistochemically. Data of time-frequency spectral analysis of heart rate variability of 43 subjects of different age ("normals" and with ischemic heart disease) are also presented. Conception of the neurotransmitter stage of ontogenesis of autonomic nervous system is formulated, and the phenomenon of early involution of its sympathetic part is described. Neurohistochemical data are compared with results of analysis of heart rate variability at normal and hypertensive states. The original data on nitric oxide synthase content in cardiac ganglia at normal state and coronary heart disease are provided. Prospects of immunohistochemical studies of central and autonomic nervous systems during ontogeny and at main cardiovascular diseases are outlined.
authors.forename: V N
authors.initials: VN
authors.lastname: Shvalev
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005728:Ganglia, Sympathetic / Q000473:pathology; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase