The influence of aortic baroreceptors on venous tone in the perfused hind limb of the dog

Abstract

1. The aortic arch and both carotid sinuses were vascularly isolated and perfused. A hind limb was vascularly isolated and blood was pumped at constant flows into the femoral artery and the central end of a superficial metatarsal vein. 2. Large increases in aortic arch pressure resulted in decreases in arterial blood pressure, heart rate and femoral arterial perfusion pressure. The average response of the vein was a decrease of 11% in the pressure gradient between the perfused vein and the femoral vein. Similar responses were obtained when carotid sinus pressure was increased. 3. Crushing or cooling the lumbar sympathetic trunk caused responsed similar to those induced by increasing baroreceptor perfusion pressure. Stimulation at 1 HZ resulted in venous responses four times as great as the average reflex response, whereas frequencies of 2-5 Hz were required to produce changes in arterial resistance as great as those induced reflexly. 4. These experiments indicate, that although the large superficial veins of the dog's hind limb participate in the baroreceptor reflexes, the activities in the nerves supplying arterioles and veins must have been different.