A contractile property of phenylephrine (PE), alpha 1 agonist, on rat anococcygeus muscle was compared with that on rat aorta by simultaneously measuring changes in intracellular Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) level and muscle tension. (1) PE (0.1-30 microM) and high K+ induced a sustained increases in [Ca2+]i level and muscle tension of both the muscles. (2) An application of verapamil (10 microM) and EGTA (4...

1. The rat anococcygeus muscle possesses a dense motor adrenergic innervation and also a powerful inhibitory innervation whose transmitter is unknown. The possibility that the adrenergic nerves released both noradrenaline and the unknown inhibitory transmitter was investigated by destroying the adrenergic nerves either by immunosympathectomy or by 6-hydroxydopamine.2. Immunosympathectomy was on...

Neonatal treatment of female mice with diethystilbestrol (DES) is known to induce ovary-independent persistent proliferation and cornification of vaginal epithelium. This irreversibly changed vaginal epithelium persistently expressed higher levels of c-jun and c-fos mRNAs, which was not altered by postpubertal estrogen. Sexual dimorphism was encountered in mouse pelvis and anococcygeus muscle. ...

1 The depletion of noradrenaline (NA) in the rat anococcygeus muscle and vas deferens by reserpine and the effect on this of the abolition of nerve activity by pithing and reinforcement of nerve activity by stimulation of the spinal cord outflows has been studied.2 NA depletion of the anococcygeus and vas deferens measured 24 h after reserpine was similar and was related to dose. The heart was ...

Isometric tension responses to neuropeptides were recorded from anococcygeus muscles isolated from male mice. This smooth muscle tissue is innervated by inhibitory nonadrenergic, noncholinergic nerves that resemble, ultrastructurally, the peptidergic neurons of the gastrointestinal tract; the physiological function of the anococcygeus is not known. Slow sustained contractions were produced by o...

1. The effect of lysergic acid diethylamid (LSD) on the response to field stimulation in vitro of the rat vas deferens and anococcygeus muscle was examined. 2. LSD in concentrations from 10(-9) to 10(-6) M caused an increase in tone or rhythmic activity in both tissues, effects identical to those produced by guanethidine or tyramine. The motor effects of all three drugs were abolished by phento...