published_or_final_version / Physiology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The premature infant is subject to pathological alterations of the cardiovascular system leading to insufficient pulmonary blood flow and/or sudden surges of pressure to fragile cerebral blood vessels, conditions which are often associated with hypotension. Dobutamine appears to be a potentially useful agent to increase pulmonary blood flow and correct hypotension. In view of this potential, the alpha-adrenergic characteristics of dobutamine acts were studied in the isolated rabbit femoral and pulmonary arteries. Dobutamine on the post synaptic membrane of these tissues as a high affinity, low intrinsic activity alpha adrenergic agonist. No action of dobutamine to modulate stimulation evoked release of norepinephrine was found, although dobutamine did increase spontaneous release of norepinephrine. This effect was not blocked by antagonists of uptake 1 and uptake 2. To further evaluate dobutamine for use in the neonate, contractile responses of the femoral and pulmonary arteries and aorta to dobutamine and norepinephrine were studied in dogs of various ages from newborn to 6 weeks. Maximal contractile responses to norepinephrine in the pulmonary artery and aorta increased with age. Dobutamine produced small or no responses in all newborn tissues studied and also showed increasing responsiveness with age. To allow future study of the mechanism of these changes a method of radioligand binding was established for vascular smooth muscle using the ligands prazosin and rauwolscine in the dog and rabbit pulmonary artery and aorta. This binding was found to demonstrate the properties of saturability, sterospecificity and rank order of potency. Possible variables that could account for the observed changes in response during maturation were mathematically modeled to provide a theoretical basis for future studies combining measurement of contractile response and radioligand binding techniques.

published_or_final_version / Physiology / Master / Master of Philosophy

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008. / "May 2008" The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This study examines the α-adrenergic constrictor tone varies with intensity of exercise, the effects of coronary α1-adrenergic blockade on left ventricular contractile function and regional myocardial perfusion, and compares the effects of increasing coronary blood flow by removing α1-constrictor tone.

No description available.

In the present study alpha-receptor modulation of coronary flow and cardiac function was examined in exercising dogs, chronically instrumented to measure: circumflex blood flow velocity (CFV), heart rate (HR), global left ventricular function (LVP and dP/dt Max) and regional left ventricular function (%SL and dL/dt (s)max). During exercise, local adrenergic blockade was produced by intracoronary injection of 1.0 mg phentolamine ( anon-specific alpha-antagonist) or .5 mp prazosin. Exercise significantly increased HR, LVP, dP/dt max, CFV, %SL and dL/dt (s)max. Neither alpha-antagonist produced changes in HR, LVP or %SL; however, both phentolamine and prazosin produced significant increses in dP/dtmax, CFV and dL/dt(s)max of the alpha-blocked region, when compared to their exercise level before alpha-blockade. It is suggested that an alpha1-adrenergic vasoconstriction limits coronary vasodilation and, thereby, cardiac function during exercise.

Thesis (doctoral)--University of Lund, 1995. / Added t.p. with thesis statement inserted.

Thesis (doctoral)--University of Lund, 1995. / Added t.p. with thesis statement inserted.

Investigations of cholinergic and adrenergic tone on heart rate (fH) and mean arterial pressure (Pm) during embryonic development have been conducted on numerous avian species. While these investigations have documented that adrenergic tone, a continuous stimulation, on fH and Pm is vital to embryonic development in the birds studied to date, development of cholinergic tone on fH has been shown to vary even within species. Further, past studies have been bias to focus primarily on precocial species while altricial species remain poorly understood in this context. The goal of this investigation was to investigate the role of cholinergic and adrenergic tone on fH and Pm of an altricial species, the neotropic cormorant (P. brasilianus) to address this bias. The embryonic neotropic cormorant possesses B-and-a adrenergic tone on fH and Pm at 70% and 90% incubation while cholinergic tone on fH occurs at 90% incubation. This pattern of control is similar to that previously reported for several species of precocial birds suggesting the development of tonic cardiovascular regulation may be conserved across avian taxa.