Atrial receptors in the dog and rabbit

1. Action potentials were recorded from slips of the cervical vagi in anaesthetized dogs and rabbits. Single functional units with atrial patterns of discharge (Paintal Type A, B and intermediate) were obtained and then attempts were made to alter (i.e. convert) their patterns of discharge. Finally the points of origin of these action potentials were located.2. Thirty unselected units were investigated in thirty dogs. Twenty-seven of these were located in the endocardium of the vein-atrial system and the ratio of the type A, type B and intermediate type receptors was 1:16:10; three units were located elsewhere in the chest. Conversion of the pattern of discharge was achieved in twenty of the twenty-seven units; conversion was achieved in the single type A unit.3. In a second series of experiments in dogs, eight Paintal Type A units were selectively studied in fifteen animals. Four of these were located in the endocardium and all were converted. The remaining four were located outside the endocardium and conversion could not be achieved in two of these. Thus in the entire investigation, the ;type A' units which could not be converted were all located at sites other than the atrial endocardium.4. In the corresponding unselected study in the rabbit, eleven units were studied in eleven animals. Nine of these units were located in the atrial endocardium and the ratio of the type A, type B and intermediate type receptors was 2:1:6. Conversion was achieved in both type A units, the sole type B unit and two of the intermediate units. One of the two units found outside the atrial endocardium was a ;type A' unit and could not be converted.5. The present investigation has shown that the atrial receptors with a Paintal Type A pattern of discharge are relatively rare in both dogs and rabbits. Conversion of the pattern of discharge is a relatively common phenomenon. Evidence for the proposition that there is one basic type of atrial receptor whose pattern of discharge is determined by its precise location in the vein-atrial system is discussed.