To learn the nature of the autonomic control of the serous lingual salivary glands of von Ebner, parasympathetic and sympathetic agonists were injected into rats, and the extent of depletion of the secretory granules in gland acini was measured. Injection of the beta-adrenergic agonist isoproterenol caused a concentration-dependent reduction of the secretory granule content of the acinar cells....

PURPOSE Impaired cardiovascular autonomic regulation is a non-motor symptom of Parkinson's disease (PD) and may increase long-term morbidity. This study applied frequency-domain analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) to understand the progression of sympathetic and parasympathetic cardiac regulation in patients with PD. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this cross-sectional study, 21 male and 11 fem...

BACKGROUND Previous studies have suggested that coronary artery disease is independently associated with reduced cardiac parasympathetic activity, and that this is important in its pathophysiology. These studies included many patients with complications that might be responsible for the reported autonomic abnormalities. OBJECTIVE To measure cardiac parasympathetic activity in patients with un...

Sympathetic hyperactivity and its outcome in heart failure have been thoroughly investigated to determine the focus of pharmacologic approaches targeting the sympathetic nervous system in the treatment of this pathophysiological condition. On the other hand, therapeutic approaches aiming to protect the reduced cardiac parasympathetic function have not received much attention. The present study ...

Synapses in autonomic ganglia represent the final output of various CNS structures that regulate the function of the periphery. Normally, these excitatory cholinergic-nicotinic synapses produce large suprathreshold EPSPs on sympathetic and parasympathetic neurons to convey signals from the CNS. However, in certain disease states, synaptic transmission in autonomic ganglia is depressed and the p...

In vitro antigen challenge has multiple effects on the excitability of guinea pig bronchial parasympathetic ganglion neurons, including depolarization, causing phasic neurons to fire with a repetitive action potential pattern and potentiating synaptic transmission. In the present study, guinea pigs were passively sensitized to the antigen ovalbumin. After sensitization, the bronchi were prepare...