Abstract
1. We have studied the effects of prostaglandin E(2) (PGE(2)) on action potential propagation in the isolated, desheathed vagus and saphenous nerves of rats using an extracellular grease gap recording method. 2. PGE(2) evoked a small depolarization of vagus nerves but had no effect on the stimulation threshold, size or latency of either the A wave (corresponding to conduction in A fibres) or the C wave (corresponding to conduction in C fibres) of the compound action potential (CAP) recorded from either vagus or saphenous nerves. 3. Lidocaine (0.01 - 10 mM) reduced all components of the CAP of both vagus and saphenous nerves. PGE(2) had no significant effect on the sensitivity of any component of the CAP to lidocaine. 4. Tetrodotoxin (TTX, 10 microM) blocked completely both the A wave and the C wave of the CAP in either vagus or saphenous nerves. 5. In saphenous nerve preparations the A wave was blocked by lower concentrations of TTX than the C wave or any component of the CAP in vagus nerve preparations which suggests that somatosensory A fibres express a different sub-type of TTX-sensitive voltage-gated sodium channel (VGSC) than somatosensory C-fibres or visceral sensory fibres. 6. Chemical activation of VGSCs with veratridine (10 or 50 microM) induced a depolarization in either nerve. The depolarization induced by 50 microM veratridine was blocked by 10 microM TTX. 7. Although TTX-insensitive VGSCs are expressed by some vagal and some somatosensory neurones they do not appear to be expressed functionally in the axons.