A search for pulmonary arterial chemoreceptors in the cat, with a comparison of the blood supply of the aortic bodies in the new-born and adult animal

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Abstract
Impulses were recorded from vagal fibers arising from chemoreceptors in the aortico-pulmonary region. The receptors were identified by their response to hypoxia, and located by comparing the effects of injecting drugs at various sites in the pulmonary and systematic circulations. In only 1 case did a chemoreceptor appear to receive pulmonary rather than systemic arterial blood. No chemoreceptor impulses were evoked when a segment of the pulmonary artery was perfused as described by others. The vasculature of the aortico-pulmonary bodies was displayed by micro-dissection following injection of colored gelatin masses, and the bodies were examined histologically. In the newborn kitten, the pulmonary artery invariably furnished a branch to some aortic bodies but the vessel frequently anastomosed with systemic arteries. As post-natal development proceeded the vessel became occluded, and in most kittens more than a month old and in 41 of 43 cats the aortic bodies were supplied wholly by systemic arteries. A pulmonary arterial supply to aortic bodies in the adult animal is an uncommon variation owing to the abnormal persistence of a fetal condition. The nomenclature introduced by Howe (1956) is, with slight modification, a useful method of classifying the various groups of aortic bodies according to their position, blood supply and innervation.