Vasoconstrictor Fibre Discharge to Skeletal Muscle, Kidney, Intestine and Skin at Varying Levels of Arterial Baroreceptor Activity in the Cat

Abstract Estimations of the average discharge rates in vasoconstrictor fibres to skeletal muscle, kidney, intestine and skin at varying levels of arterial baroreceptor activity were made by comparing quantitatively the reflexly induced vascular responses with those obtained with stimulations of the regional vasoconstrictor fibres at known frequencies. The results indicate that withdrawal of baroreceptor restraint was normally followed by a considerably lower firing rate in renal vasoconstrictor fibres than in e.g . skeletal muscle vasoconstrictor fibres. A complete elimination of the inhibitory influence induced vasoconstrictor fibre discharge rates up to 8 imp/s in skeletal muscle but only at most 4 imp/s in the kidney. Intestinal vasomotor fibres were found to be activated to approximately the same extent as those to skeletal muscle. The vasomotor fibres to the cutaneous arterio‐venous anastomoses were evidently not activated when the baroreceptors were unloaded. The reason for this non‐uniform activation of the different sets of vasoconstrictor fibres seems to be different levels of spontaneous activity in the respective “neuron pools” in the bulbar vasomotor centre. The renal vascular responses to baroreceptor unloading became augmented when the excitatory level in the vasomotor centre was enhanced, as e.g . when the animal became acidotic.