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AGENTS ACTING ON THE LUNG CIRCULATION
Author(s) -
Dirken M. N. J.,
Heemstra H.
Publication year - 1948
Publication title -
quarterly journal of experimental physiology and cognate medical sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.925
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1469-445X
pISSN - 0033-5541
DOI - 10.1113/expphysiol.1948.sp000931
Subject(s) - histamine , acetylcholine , lung , vagotomy , physostigmine , anesthesia , atropine , vasodilation , chemistry , medicine
By methods described in previous papers the action of various agents on the blood circulation in the lungs has been studied in the living rabbit. Resection of part of the sympathetic trunk, including the upper thoracic ganglia, causes an increase of blood‐flow through the lung. Vagotomy is without effect. Some evidence is produced that carbon dioxide might exert a local vasoconstrictor action. If so, both the development of the effect and its disappearance must be fairly rapid. In the living rabbit an adrenaline‐aerosol produces a distinct constriction of the lung‐vessels accompanied by a slight decrease in ventilation. The effect of acetylcholine‐aerosol proves to be a weak vasodilatation, which on the addition of physostigmine changes into a strong vasoconstriction accompanied by a decrease in ventilation. These latter effects are abolished by atropine. A large dose of choline has been found to exert a slight constrictor action. The inhalation of histamine‐aerosol causes a very pronounced narrowing of the lung‐vessels, which at a high dose is accompanied by a great diminution of the ventilation. Anti‐histaminics (neo‐antergan) rapidly abolish the effects of the histamine‐aerosol. The adaptation of the calibre of the lung‐vessels to the alveolar oxygen tension is not mediated by extrapulmonary nerves. Neither adrenaline, acetylcholine nor histamine seem to be involved in the mechanism of its production. The histamine content of the nitrogen lung generally surpasses that of the oxygen lung by approximately 50 per cent.