Summary
The responses of the isolated rabbit and human renal pelvis to drugs and to electrical stimulation have been investigated. Regular spontaneous changes in tension occur in the circular smooth muscle, which in the rabbit are synchronous with electrical waves. The responses to electrical stimulation seem to be due to the release of catecholamines from adrenergic nerves. Such nerves have been observed by means of a fluorescence technique. The cholinergic system appears functionally unimportant. The adrenergic responses in human and rabbit seem to be mediated exclusively by α-adrenoceptors.
The denervated rabbit organ shows hypersensitivity, mainly to low concentrations of adrenaline. The failure of uptake inhibitors to potentiate the responses to noradrenaline seems in favour of postsynaptic hypersensitivity.
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Del Tacca, M., Lecchini, S., Stacchini, B. et al. Pharmacological studies of the rabbit and human renal pelvis. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Arch. Pharmacol. 285, 209–222 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00498991
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00498991