Studies on the microcirculation under the influence of the autonomic nerve irritation.

Although it has been known that dysfunction of the autonomic nerve may be held responsible for causing a variety of disease states, it was by J. Reilly in 1934 that a convincing experimental evidence was presented for the fact that irritation of the autonomic nerve gives rise to an unspecific type of reaction within the organism with widespread pathological processes. Ever since, a large number of experimental studies have demonstrated that irritation of the auto nomic nerve induces lesions not only in the organs which are under direct in nervation of the nerve but also in those organs which are not directly related to the nerve. This phenomenon has been termed Reilly's phenomenon (Syndrome d'irritation neuro-vegetative) (1), and has been the subject of a large number of clinical as well as experimental studies(2). The exact mechanism of this pheno menon, however, remains to be elucidated. The lesions induced as the result of autonomic nerve irritation include petechial hemorrhage in the pancreas, adrenals, myocardium, small hemorrhage and infarction in the lungs, scattered small hemorrhages in the gastric mucosa and hematuria. Those lesions are char acterized histologically by marked dilatation and stagnation of the capillaries and petechial hemorrhages. This factis in support of the view that Reilly's phenome non is mediated by disturbance of the function of the vascular system. Yamaguchi et al(3) has previously expressed the view that both autonomic nervous and endocrine systems are participating in the reaction to autonomic nerve irritation. The present study has been undertaken to investigate the be havior of the peripheral vascular bed in response to autonomic nerve irritation in order to obtain a clue for elucidating the complex relationship between those two systems.