Abstract
Inhalation of cigarette smoke has been shown to induce bronchoconstriction which should stimulate slowly adapting pulmonary stretch receptors (PSRs). To test this possibility, the activity of PSRs was recorded from fine afferent filaments of the vagus nerve before and aftter ml of smoke generated from high-nicotine cigarettes was delivered into the lungs in a single breath in anesthetized, open-chest and artificially ventilated dogs. The base-line activity of PSRs did not change during the first two breaths following smoke delivery. However, PSR activity started to increase by the third breath (post-smoke), concomitant with an increase in tracheal (transpulmonary) pressure. Both the smoke-induced increase in tracheal pressure and the delayed effect on PSRs were prevented by a pretreatment with aerosolized isoproterenol, a bronchodilator, suggesting that the delayed response of PSRs to smoke was elicited by the change in bronchomotor tone. Although smoke evoked a delayed stimulation in the majority (61%) of the PSRs studied, it caused a mild delayed inhibition (24%) or had no effect (15%) in some of the receptors. The variable responses to smoke among PSRs are probably related to the smoke-induced heterogenous changes of mechanical properties in the lungs and their anatomic locations.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 181-192 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Respiration Physiology |
Volume | 88 |
Issue number | 1-2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1992 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Aeknowledgements. The authors are grateful to Cecil Woolfolk for surgical assistance and to John Turbek for statistical analysis of the data. This study was supported by Program Project Grant HL-40369 from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, U.S.A. and by University of Kentucky Tobacco and Health Research Institute Grant 41066.
Keywords
- Airway
- Bronchoconstriction
- Mammals
- Pulmonary receptors
- Receptors
- bronchial stretch
- cigarette smoke
- dog
- smooth muscle
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Physiology
- Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine