THE LOCATION AND FUNCTION OF THE CHEMORECEPTORS OF THE AORTA

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Location (detd. by intra-arterial injs. of lobeline or cyanide through fine catheters) corresponds in dogs with the minute branch of aorta leading to aortic body; in cats, the corresponding artery arises from coronaries; the nerve supply enters each vagodepressor close to or with recurrent laryngeal. The function is similar to that of the carotid chemoreceptors, i.e. to cause hy-perpnea and hypertension of anoxemia, cyanide, lobeline, etc. but in dogs the aortic reflexes, amid individual variations, clearly tend to affect vasomotor center more than respiratory while the carotid chemoreflexes affect the respiratory center more than the vasomotor; in cats, amid even wider variations, both sets of reflexes tend to affect both functions more than in dogs. The main function of aortic chemoreceptors is to stimulate the vasomotor center during anoxemia; part or all of the McDowall reflex probably arises here.