Physiological enteric stimulation elicits cardiovascular reflexes in the rat

By use of anesthetized rats, parameters for the activation of cardiovascular reflexes by stimulation of gastric or hepatic receptors have been established. For reflex activation, the mean minimum intragastric volume was 4 ml, and the mean minimum rate of hepatic portal vein infusion was 0.3 ml/min. Subdiaphragmatic vagotomy affected the response to gastric distension but did not appear to affect the response to hepatic portal vein infusion, indicating that vagal afferents are involved in mediating gastric-cardiovascular but not hepatic-cardiovascular reflexes. Experiments designed to emphasize the vagal component of the response to gastric distension confirmed this finding. Antagonist effects indicated that the tachycardia was mediated by beta-adrenoreceptor stimulation and that the pressor response was mainly mediated by alpha-adrenoreceptors. The data show that stimuli used in experiments to assess central processing of sensory information from the gastrointestinal tract can activate cardiovascular reflexes. Caution in the design of such experiments and in the interpretation of the data generated is indicated.