STUDIES ON THE SENSITIVITY OF SMOOTH MUSCULATURE TO EXOGENOUS EPINEPHRINE

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Abstract
Quanti-tative data on the sensitivity changes of denervated smooth musculature are presented. Such increased sensitivity is still further increased by thyroid feedings and by total hypophysectomy. To a lesser degree normally innervated smooth musculature is similarly affected. The action of exogenous epinephrine on sensitized and presumably also on normal tissue is decreased by thyroidectomy, by gonad-ectomy and by adrenalectomy. Changes in sensitivity to epinephrine are not paralleled by changes in tone of denervated smooth musculature. The change in tissues induced by denervation is specific in the sense that it permits an altered epinephrine response but not an altered response to pituitrin. No physical or chemical basis for the altered physiological condition of denervated tissue has been demonstrable by micro-incineration, by spectrography or by routine cytological methods. Evidence is presented not inconsistent with the interpretation that the increased sensitivity of smooth musculature to exogenous epinephrine may be due to an increased store of epinephrine or of a substance on which it acts.

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