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Storage and release of acetylcholine in a sympathetic ganglion
Author(s) -
Birks R. I.,
Fitch S. J. G.
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
the journal of physiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.802
H-Index - 240
eISSN - 1469-7793
pISSN - 0022-3751
DOI - 10.1113/jphysiol.1974.sp010603
Subject(s) - acetylcholine , stimulation , sympathetic ganglion , superior cervical ganglion , ganglion , chemistry , cervical ganglia , compartment (ship) , endocrinology , medicine , neuroscience , biology , oceanography , geology
1. The hypotheses of preferential release of newly synthesized acetylcholine (ACh) and two compartment storage of transmitter in the cat superior cervical ganglion have been re‐examined by testing, first, the assumption that ganglionic ACh stores do not alter during a 20 min rest following 60 min preganglionic nerve stimulation at 20/s, and secondly, the implication that the rate of ACh release should be high near the onset of activity and decline to a lower rate with time irrespective of the frequency of stimulation. 2. The ganglionic ACh stores were found to increase by 38 ± 8% within 20 min following 60 min preganglionic nerve stimulation at 20/s, and this extra ACh was releasable. 3. The rate of ACh release from ganglia perfused with cat plasma and stimulated at 4/s increased over the first 5 min of stimulation to reach a 27% higher rate that was maintained. 4. Correction of the original data to allow for the post‐activation increase in ACh stores suggests that newly synthesized ACh equilibrates with most of the preformed stores. The time course of ACh release at 4/s does not support the two compartment model as currently formulated. 5. These findings resolve in part a conflict between the physiological data and a recent hypothesis for ACh storage based on ganglion morphology.