[Age-related changes in the cholinergic and adrenergic nerve elements of the human heart and their status in...

Histochemical studies of architectonics and mediator activity of cholinergic and adrenergic nerve plexuses in the myocardium of the auricles and right atrii of the heart were carried out. Both autopsy and biopsy materials: parts of right atrii from patient with congenital and rheumatic defects and atherosclerosis of the coronary arteries, were used. Age changes in the nerve plexus were found to include a decrease in the activity of acetylcholinesterase and the content of catecholamines followed by decreased density of the plexus itself. Perivascular fibrosis combined with changes of afferent and adrenergic elements was revealed. Coronary artery atherosclerosis enhances and aggravates functional and structural changes of cholinergic and adrenergic components of the nervous apparatus of the heart associated with age. Congenital heart diseases are accompanied by decreasing density of adrenergic nerve plexuses and decreased content of catecholamines in them, and rheumatic diseases by destruction of cholinergic and adrenergic components.