Abstract
IN view of the present controversy, recently voiced in your journal1–3 and elsewhere4,5, concerning a significant vasoconstrictor action of noradrenaline (NA) applied microiontophoretically in the brain, it seems worth pointing out that the required experiments, that is direct applications of NA to cerebral vessels in cats, have been performed by Lassen et al.6. According to their observations, cortical arterioles are rather insensitive to noradrenaline—in contrast to arterioles in the cremasteric muscle, tested as a control by the same technique—but are readily dilated by acid solutions. Thus, the release of NA from more-or-less acid solutions would be more likely to cause a local vasodilatation than vasoconstriction. Whether this contributes significantly to the excitation apparently caused by strongly acid solutions7,8 remains to be established.
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References
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KRNJEVIĆ, K. Vasoconstriction by Noradrenaline in the Brain. Nature New Biology 242, 244 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1038/newbio242244a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/newbio242244a0