Vagosympathetic trunks

Sigurdson CJ, Spraker TR, Miller MW et al (2001) PrP(CWD) in the myenteric plexus, vagosympathetic trunk and endocrine glands of deer with chronic wasting disease. J Gen Virol 82 2327-2334... 

Figure 2 A beagle dog was anesthetized with thiamylal sodium (Surital) and intubated. The vagosympathetic trunks of this dog had previously been exteriorized and placed in skin tubes. This enabled the positioning of copper blocks, with templates of the skin tube milled out, to be placed on the skin tubes. These copper blocks were cooled to 0°C with thermoelectric elements with the excess heat conducted away by water flowing through the adjacent heat sink. A small jar containing 20 mL of 10-M ammonia solution was transiently placed in proximity to the endotracheal tube while the dog inhaled one breath. Following spontaneous inhalation of the ammonia vapor, there were no changes in ECG, arterial blood pressure, nor was there any tachypnea.

Figure 3 When the dog in Figure 2 inhaled a breath of ammonia vapor above a 14-M solution of ammonia, and the vagosympathetic trunks were cooled to 0°C, (a) the vapor still induced apnea and systemic arterial hypotension, (b) Neither the ammonia-induced apnea nor the hypotension were abolished by bilateral sectioning of the vagosympathetic...

Figure 6 The ECG and blood pressure in a ragweed-sensitized dog that was challenged with 0.15 U/mL of ragweed allergen, (a) without neural blockade, (b) with cooling the vagosympathetic trunks to 0°C, and (c) cooling the vagosympathetic trunks to 0°C and anesthetizing the cervicothoracic ganglia with lidocaine. The slower heart rate under these conditions is indicative of the removal of sympathetic tone.

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