Peripheral Vasomotor Effects of Adrenaline and Noradrenaline Acting upon the Isolated Perfused Central Nervous System

Abstract

The problem of the participation of the nervous system in the control of blood pressure has received scant attention. Our purpose was to learn more of the nervous mechanisms which participate in its control. By means of a special technic which allows the brain to be perfused with blood from another animal and yet be connected with the body only by the nervous system, it was shown that pressor substances perfused through the brain cause a fall in pressure in the body. On the contrary, substances which are depressor in the donor's body cause a rise in pressure in the recipient's body when they act on the brain. We conclude that the brain contains hitherto unrecognized chemoreceptors independent of the carotid sinuses. Baroreceptors were not found in the blood vessels. This cerebral buffer mechanism must have important functions in determining the response to vasoactive substances, especially in hypertension and shock.