Acute experimental emotional stress in rabbits (physiological and cytochemical aspects)

The influence of acute experimental emotional stress, induced by electrical stimulation of the hypothalamus and skin in immobilized adult male rabbits of the Chinchilla breed, was determined in complex physiological and cytochemical investigations. Three groups of animals were distinguished according to the nature of the cardiovascular responses: resistance, adaptable, and predisposed to the development of stress. In animals predisposed to the development of emotional stress, different metabolic changes are induced in different extraneural nodes of the autonomic nervous system and sympathetic chain. The most pronounced changes occur in the nodose ganglion of the vagus nerve; in this case changes of a catabolic nature predominate over anabolic changes in it. In the stellate ganglion and nodes of the sympathetic chain there is an intensification of anabolic processes. The upper cervical sympathetic node occupies an intermediate position with respect to the nature of the metabolic changes. The presence of a tendency for an increase in the activity of the "fast" isoenzymes of lactate dehydrogenase was demonstrated in the conducting system of the heart.