1. Exposure to glass of whole blood from anaesthetized foetal lambs (at 0.6-0.95 of term) causes the rapid development of a potent pulmonary vasodilator agent.2. The formation of the vasodilator agent on exposure to glass, its disappearance with time, and the inhibition of its production by soya bean trypsin inhibitor, suggest that it is bradykinin.3. Small doses of bradykinin ( approximately 1 ng/kg) cause pulmonary vasodilatation on close arterial injection. Neither this, nor the vasodilatation caused by glass-exposed whole blood, are affected by agents which block the vasodilator actions of acetylcholine, isoprenaline or histamine.4. Exposure of foetal plasma and/or red cells to glass rarely caused the development of a pulmonary vasodilator agent. Maternal plasma was always active. Injection of the buffy coat from foetal blood caused pulmonary vasodilatation.5. The capacity of plasma from sheep at different ages to produce kinin(s) was examined by assay on the isolated rat's uterus. In the foetus activity was very low; it increased with age.6. In adolescent lambs 5-14 weeks after birth injection of approximately 10 ng/kg bradykinin into the pulmonary artery caused only a trifling vasodilatation; this was greater when pulmonary vasoconstriction was induced by lung collapse, hypoxaemia and hypercapnia.7. The possible physiological consequences of these findings are discussed.

Aging↗

PubMed1966

Pharmacological and chromatographic studies of the neurohypophysial activities of the pituitary of further elasmobranch species.

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Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Effects of norepinephrine on lung liquid production by in vitro lungs from fetal guinea pigs.

Lungs from near-term fetal guinea pigs (61 +/- 2 days of gestation) were supported in vitro for 3 h; lung liquid production was monitored by a dye dilution method. Untreated control preparations produced fluid at 1.38 +/- 0.30 mL x kg(-1) body weight x h(-1), with no significant change (ANOVA; regression analysis); those given 1.24 x 10(-9) or 1.24 x 10(-8) M norepinephrine during the middle hour showed no significant change, but those given concentrations between 5.24 x 10(-8) and 1.24 x 10(-5) M all showed significant reductions or fluid reabsorption (based on 42 fetuses). The responses showed a linear relationship with the log concentration (r = 0.97). They appeared to involve alpha-adrenoreceptors, since responses to 10(-7) M norepinephrine were unaffected by 10(-6) M propranolol, but those to 10(-7) and 1.24 x 10(-6) M norepinephrine were abolished by 10(-6) and 1.78 x 10(-5) M phentolamine, respectively (based on 48 fetuses). Activation was through alpha2-adrenoreceptors, since responses to 10(-7) and 10(-5) M norepinephrine were abolished by 10(-4) M yohimbine, but not by 10(-5) M prazosin (based on 60 fetuses). The results show that norepinephrine is able to reduce lung liquid production when at plasma levels present at birth, and that it can produce reabsorption; unlike epinephrine, there was no reduction in responses at high concentrations. This work reintroduces a neglected factor, norepinephrine, into possible controls of lung liquid reabsorption, and opens up the potential for neural controls.

Adrenergic alpha-1 Receptor Antagonists↗