Abstract
1. In cats anaesthetized with chloralose, neuronal cell bodies were excited by micro-injection of DL-homocysteic acid (DLH). 2. Injections made into the ventrolateral medulla in the region of nucleus paragigantocellularis lateralis (p.g.l.) produced a rise in blood pressure accompanied by either an increase or decrease in heart rate according to the precise site of the injection. The tachycardia was blocked by propranolol (0.15-0.5 mg kg-1 I.V.) whilst bradycardia was abolished by vagotomy or atropine (0.2-1.5 mg kg-1 I.V.). 3. Recordings were made of blood flow to the hind-limb, renal and mesenteric vascular beds in order to study the haemodynamic changes separately in each region. 4. Vasoconstriction was seen in the renal and mesenteric beds and either vasodilatation or vasoconstriction could be evoked in hind-limb muscle. The vasodilatation in hind-limb muscle was resistant to atropine but significantly reduced by propranolol (0.15-1.5 mg kg-1 I.V.) and therefore was probably mediated mainly by circulating adrenaline. 5. The relative contribution by each vascular bed to the rise in peripheral resistance produced by micro-injection of DLH at any one site varied according to the site of the injection and there was a degree of topographical organization within p.g.l. The neuronal pools which elicit tachycardia, renal vasoconstriction and hind-limb dilatation were located at the rostral end of the nucleus whilst those which produced vasoconstriction in the hind-limb muscle and mesenteric vascular beds were represented further caudally.