Influence of atrial stretch receptors on hypothalamic neurosecretory neurones

1. The effects of stimulation of atrial receptors on hypothalamic neurosecretory cells were investigated in anaesthetized dogs and cats. Atrial receptors were activated by stretching the left and the right atria while action potentials of individual neurosecretory neurones in the supraoptic (s.o.n.) and paraventricular (p.v.m.) nuclei of the hypothalamus were recorded. 2. Stretching the left atrium markedly decreased firing frequencies of 'antidromically identified' s.o.n. and p.v.n. neurones in dogs and cats; 98% of neurones in dogs and 70% in cats were thus inhibited. Heart rate accelerated following a transient reflexly induced deceleration. The blood pressure was not affected. The magnitude and duration of inhibitory effects produced by atrial stretch on s.o.n. and p.v.n. neurones paralleled changes observed in heart rate. Approximately one third of 'unidentified' cells in s.o.n. and p.v.n. (those which could not be activated antidromically) were inhibited by left atrium stretch. 3. Bilateral vagotomy abolished the effects on neurosecretory neurones as well as on heart rate produced by left atrial stretch, indicating that the vagus nerves carry afferent impulses responsible for the observed changes. 4. Stretching the right atrium did not produce changes in firing frequencies of s.o.n. and p.v.n. neurones in dogs and cats, although cardiac rate was increased considerably by such stretch. Stimulation of the left and right atria was tested in the same animal in succession to permit comparison of the diverse results. 5. Interaction of responses originating from atrial receptors, baro- and chemoreceptors were studied. During carotid occlusion or stimulation of chemoreceptors activity of the neurosecretory cells was greatly augmented. Left atrial stretch when then applied evoked slight or no reduction in activity in s.o.n. and p.v.n. neurones. These results were interpreted to mean that the influence of baro- or chemoreceptors on neurosecretory neurones probably is stronger than that originating from atrial receptors. 6. Unlike the observations made in rats, no rhythmically bursting neurones (phasic cells) were found in dogs and cats. However, atrial stretch sometimes evoked a rhythmic bursting pattern which appeared only during stretch. 7. It is concluded that activation of left atrial receptors, through afferent impulses carried mainly by vagus nerves, inhibits neurosecretory neurones in s.o.n. and p.v.n. The implications of this finding in relation to the role of ADH in the maintenance of blood volume control were discussed.