Abstract
Dahlström and Fuxe have shown histochemically that norepinephrine (NE) is localized in a pathway from the brain stem to the spinal cord with terminals predominantly in the dorsal and ventral horns1. Biochemical investigations demonstrating the release of NE from the spinal cord by stimulation of descending tracts2 and almost complete disappearance of NE below a spinal transection3 provide additional evidence for a descending NE pathway. A pharmacological investigation of the sensitivity of neurones in the spinal cord had previously reported4 that interneurones were not sensitive to the electrophoretic administration of NE in barbiturate anaesthetized cats (the effect of NE on motoneurones was apparently not investigated). Because it is known that barbiturate anaesthesia can reduce or abolish pharmacological responses in the spinal cord5,6, we reinvestigated this problem in decerebrated cats and a few cats anaesthetized with ether and found that Renshaw cells and a number of interneurones are sensitive to NE (refs. 7 and 8). Similar findings have now been reported by other investigators9,10. During the course of these investigations, the extracellular action potentials of single motoneurones were only occasionally recorded; the investigation of these cells revealed that NE depressed the firing of some motoneurones.
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References
Dahlström, A., and Fuxe, K., Acta Physiol. Scand., 64, suppl. 247, 1 (1965).
Andén, N.-E., Carlsson, A., Hillarp, N.-Å., and Magnusson, T., Life Sci., 4, 129 (1965).
Andén, N.-E., Häggendal, J., Magnusson, T., and Rosengren, E., Acta Physiol. Scand., 62, 115 (1964).
Curtis, D. R., Phillis, J. W., and Watkins, J. C., J. Physiol., Lond., 158, 296 (1961).
Rothballer, A. B., Pharmacol. Rev., 11, 494 (1959).
Marley, E., and Vane, J. R., Nature, 198, 441 (1963).
Weight, F. F., and Salmoiraghi, G. C., J. Pharmacol., 154, 391 (1966).
Weight, F. F., and Salmoiraghi, G. C., J. Pharmacol., 153, 420 (1966).
Engberg, I., and Ryall, R. W., J. Physiol., 185, 298 (1966).
Biscoe, T. J., Curtis, D. R., and Ryall, R. W., Int. J. Neuropharmacol., 5, 429 (1966).
Fuortes, M. G. F., Frank, K., and Becker, M. C., J. Gen. Physiol., 40, 735 (1957).
Eccles, J. C., The Physiology of Nerve Cells (Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1957).
Eccles, J. C., The Physiology of Synapses (Academic Press, New York, 1964).
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WEIGHT, F., SALMOIRAGHI, G. Motoneurone Depression by Norepinephrine. Nature 213, 1229–1230 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1038/2131229a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2131229a0
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