Some embryological aspects of cholinergic innervation in the cardiovascular system--a close association with the subintestinal circulatory channel

Abstract

A series of our studies on the dog venous system revealed that cholinergic excitatory innervation was localized in a group of veins: the portal, mesenteric, and hepatic veins and the middle segment of the inferior vena cava. Our studies on pharmacological responsiveness of dog veins also revealed that they could be divided into two groups: the visceral and somatic parts, and the cholinergic excitatory innervation localized to the visceral part. Considering these results and some relevant literature, a hypothesis is proposed on the classification of muscles of the cardiovascular system and some embryological aspects of the parasympathetic cholinergic innervation in the circulatory system are discussed. The embryonic circulatory system of vertebrates can be divided into two parts: somatic and visceral. The body of an embryo is regarded as a double tube and vessels of the visceral part and the heart belong to the inner tube. The muscle of these vessels and the heart are derived from visceral mesoderm, either the coelomic epithelium or mesenchymal cells, in common with muscle of the digestive tube; and thus the parasympathetic cholinergic nerves innervating the muscle of the digestive tube also distribute to these vessels and the heart. The heart and vascular muscles in the visceral part are structures developed early in the course of evolution in invertebrates. Their primary function is to propel the body fluid, and the chief structure containing them is the subintestinal circulatory channel (ventral aorta - heart - subintestinal vein). They exhibit spontaneous, rhythmic activity, showing characteristics of a single unit muscle, and receive parasympathetic cholinergic innervation. On the other hand, the vascular muscles in the somatic part are endothelium-associated muscles developed anew in the vertebrate; do not contract spontaneously, being classified as a multiunit muscle; and lack parasympathetic cholinergic innervation.