Importance of frequency and pulse with in field stimulation of the mouse vas deferens: different behaviour of twitch-inhibiting drugs

Abstract

The effect of six twitch-inhibiting drugs on the stimulus-response relationship in the field-stimulated mouse vas deferens was compared by means of stimulus response curves which were obtained in two ways, that is, variation of frequency at constant pulse width and variation of pulse width at constant frequency. The twitch-inhibiting potency (in the range of maximal twitch responses) differed with the type of stimulation in a way permitting two groups of substances to be defined: group A (tetrodotoxin, procaine, verapamil) was more effective on frequency-response curves and group B (FK 33-824, clonidine, nifedipine) on pulse-width response curves; the latter applied also to subnormal calcium concentrations in the bath solution. The results suggest that the effect of inhibitory drugs on the field-stimulated vas of the mouse varies greatly with the type of field stimulation.