[Inhibition of cardiac activity by the stellate ganglion]

Mechanisms of cardiac activity inhibition in response to the excitation of the stellate ganglion were investigated in acute and chronic experiments involving guinea pigs (43) and rabbits (35). The inhibitory effect was shown to proceed from the excitation of vagal cholinergic fibres that anastomosed with branches of the stellate ganglion, while alpha-adrenoreceptors had no apparent effect on cardiac activity. Neither the hypothesis of preganglionic sympathetic fibres switching to intracardiac cholinergic neurons, nor the one of the cholinergic link in the mechanism of catecholamine release by sympathetic nervous endings was confirmed, therefore the well-known Dale's principle (one neuron produces its efferent effect via one mediator) appears valid here.