A comparison of the sensitivities of innervated and denervated rat vasa deferentia to agonist drugs

Abstract

1 One vas deferens of a rat was denervated by stripping away the serous coat; the other vas was left intact as a control. One week later the sensitivity in vitro of both vasa deferentia to noradrenaline, adrenaline, dopamine, oxymetazoline or acetylcholine was measured. 2 Log concentration response curves for the mean responses of both vasa from a group of four rats for each drug were plotted. Denervated vasa were more sensitive than control vasa to noradrenaline (16-fold), to adrenaline (8-fold), to dopamine (2-fold) and to oxymetazoline (2-fold). Denervated vasa were more sensitive to acetylcholine over the lower half of the concentration range only. 3 It is concluded that these results support the theory that at least part of the increased sensitivity of denervated smooth muscle to catecholamines is due to an abolition or reduction of the neuronal uptake process. There is also a small non-specific increase in sensitivity.