Abstract
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1.
Stimulation in vivo of the cervical vagus nerve produces contraction of the gallbladder of the guinea-pig. Following block of this response by atropine, a relaxation is revealed which is not affected by the adrenergic neurone blocker guanethidine. The relaxation is blocked by hexamethonium, indicating that the non-adrenergic inhibitory neurones are in the bladder wall and are activated via nicotinic synapses.
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2.
Stimulation of the intramural nerves supplying the bladder in vitro confirms the existence of nonadrenergic inhibitory neurones: relaxations appearing in response to stimulation of intramural nerves in the presence of atropine are abolished by tetrodotoxin and xylocaine, and are unaffected by guanethidine, phentolamine and propranolol.
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3.
There is evidence to suggest that these inhibitory neurones are purinergic.
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(a)
The nerve mediated relaxation is mimicked by ATP and adenosine, blocked by quinidine (in doses which block the response to ATP, but not isoprenaline) and potentiated by dipyridamole; ‘rebound contractions’ following the nerve-mediated relaxations are blocked by indomethacin, in a manner comparable to that shown for ‘rebound contractions’ following purinergic inhibitory responses of the intestine.
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(b)
Nerve cell bodies and fibres exhibit fluorescence after incubation in quinacrine (which is known to bind ATP); this fluorescence is unaffected by chemical sympathectomy with 6-hydroxydopamine.
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Davison, J.S., Al-Hassani, M., Crowe, R. et al. The non-adrenergic, inhibitory innervation of the guinea-pig gallbladder. Pflugers Arch. 377, 43–49 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00584372
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00584372