Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) has been used since 1997 for treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy. More recently, an off-label use of VNS has been explored in animal models and clinical trials for treatment of a number of conditions involving the innate immune system. The underlying premise has been the notion of the cholinergic antiinflammatory pathway (CAP), mediated by the vagus nerves. While ...

The ratio of the time needed to reach peak tidal expiratory flow (tPTEF) and the duration of expiration (tE) is used to detect airflow obstruction in young children. tPTEF is decreased in patients with asthma, but knowledge about the physiological determinants of this parameter is scarce. This study examined the relationship between tPTEF and postinspiratory activities of inspiratory muscles an...

In order to clarify the role of histamine in the neuro-humoral excitatory mechanism in the stomach, the effect of cepharanthine (an inhibitory agent of histamine release from mast cells) on excitatory response of gastric movement and increase in gastric mucosal histamine content caused by nerve stimulation (vagus and splanchnic nerves) or administration of tetragastrin were investigated in dogs...

The adaptation of the work of the respiratory centers to suddenly arising respiratory resistance has been the object of interest of numerous investigators. Some of them believed that in this condition an essential role is played by the vagus nerves. Others considered that neurocontrol is mainly dependent on the respiratory muscles. The present study was undertaken to establish which of these tw...

It has been proposed that Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) might occur as a consequence of a developmental deficit associated with the cardiorespiratory and arousal control centers located within the brainstem. In this study 1.1' dioctadecyl-3,3,3',3-tetramethylindocarbocyanine perchlorate (DiI) was used to investigate the trajectories of the glossopharyngeal and vagus nerves which carry ess...

The objective of the study was to investigate the morphology, distribution, and electrophysiological profile of the autonomic fibers that innervate the ligament of Marshall (LOM). Gross anatomical dissections were performed in 10 dogs. Sections of the left vagus nerve, left stellate ganglion, and the LOM were immunostained to identify adrenergic and cholinergic nerves. Hearts were also stained ...

We examined pharyngeal nerve courses in paraffin-embedded sagittal sections from 10 human fetuses, at 25-35 weeks of gestation, by using S100 protein immunohistochemical analysis. After diverging from the glossopharyngeal and vagus nerves at the level of the hyoid bone, the pharyngeal nerves entered the constrictor pharyngis medius muscle, then turned upward and ran superiorly and medially thro...

OBJECTIVES To describe the anatomy and neurophysiology of the cough reflex. METHODS A review of the literature was carried out using PubMed and the ISI Web of Knowledge from 1951 to 2004. Most of the referenced studies were carried out in animals CONCLUSIONS Studies carried out in animals provide suggestive but inconclusive evidence that C-fibers and rapidly adapting receptors (RARs) arisin...

VESALIUS' ILLUSTRATION of the 'sixth pair' of cranial nerves in the De Humani Corporis Fabrica shows the sympathetic trunk arising as a branch of the vagus in a position corresponding to the top of the thorax (see fig. 1). The text is the verbal equivalent of the illustration. Although of all Vesalius' work, the cranial nerves are perhaps the most open to criticism,' this error remained uncorre...

Possible roles of the afferent vagus nerve in regulation of interleukin (IL)-1beta expression in the brain and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis were examined in anesthetized rats. Levels of IL-1beta mRNA and protein in the brain were measured by comparative RT-PCR and ELISA. Direct electrical stimulation of the central end of the vagus nerve was performed continuously for 2 h. The affe...