The pattern of inhibitory responses of sympathetic nerve discharge to liminal activation of aortic C-fibres was studied in rabbits. The animals were anaesthetized with urethane and chloralose and vagotomized. Sympathetic postganglionic discharge was recorded from single fibres of the renal nerve. Inhibitory responses were elicited by single shocks or short trains (2-5 shocks at 10 Hz) and asses...

A quantitative study has been made of the effects of nerve growth factor (NGF), isolated from the venom of Vipera russelli, on the growth of dispersed cells from the sensory ganglia of the embryonic chick. The main effects were to increase the viability of the sensory neurons in culture and to promote the regeneration of nerve fibres. In the presence of NGF a higher proportion of neurons produc...

In the experiments with 43 paralyzed rabbits ventilated artificially under general anaesthesia with halothane the effect of electrical stimulation of the central end of the vagus nerve on respiratory pattern was investigated. The analysis of respiratory responses to varying parameters of stimulation, and comparison of results with the experiments in which stimulation of pulmonary receptors was ...

Following a nerve crush, damaged frog motor axons regenerate to reinnervate their denervated muscle fibre targets. The axons do this by growing down their old nerve tubes to their former synaptic sites. It is the naked basal lamina of the nerve tube that appears to direct the regenerating axons by providing a substratum over which the axons will preferentially grow. Another possible mechanism f...

OBJECTIVES Both sensory and sympathetic nerve fibres are depleted in the synovium in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The hypothesis that the induction of an inflammatory response in the synovium is capable of causing depletion of nerve fibres was tested. METHODS To investigate this phenomenon experimental arthritis in the rat was induced by three different methods and the synovium was examined for...

In the peripheral nerve trunks of vertebrates, the distance between the nodes of Ranvier is normally greater on fibres of larger diameter than on those of smaller size (Ranvier, 1875; Key and Retzius, 1876). At the time of myelination during development , internodal length is uniformly short, the nodes being spaced about 150 to 300 ,u apart. Each inter-node represents the territory of an indivi...

This section summarises some of the available literature concerning the operation of muscles and nerves. All skeletal muscles comprise groups or bundles of smaller muscle fibres; these muscle fibres are of many different shapes and sizes depending on the muscle in question. Cylindrical gamma shaped muscle fibres are comparatively short compared with, say, flagelliform or laneolate muscle fibres...

We have shown that the gene SCN10A encoding the sodium channel Na(v)1.8 is a susceptibility factor for heart block and serious ventricular arrhythmia. Since Na(v)1.8 is known to be present in nerve fibres that mediate pain, it may be related to both cardiac pain and dysrhythmia. The localisation of Na(v)1.8 and other key nociceptive ion channels, including Na(v)1.7, Na(v)1.9, capsaicin receptor...

The double immunofluorescence technique was used to examine the distribution and interrelationship between LENK- and VIP-immunoreactive nerve fibres within the muscle layer and myenteric plexus of the large intestine in a young female patient (aged 17 years) suffering from colitis ulcerosa activa (CUA). As the CUA was found to be totally drug-resistant, a pancolotomy was performed by means of t...

We have explored the innervation of the rainbow trout (O. mykiss) liver using immunohistochemical procedures and light microscopy to detect in situ protein gene product 9.5 and neuronal nitric oxide synthase immunoreactivities (PGP-IR and NOS-IR). The results showed PGP-IR nerve fibres running with the extralobular biliary duct (EBD), hepatic artery (EHA) and portal vein (EPV) that form the hep...