Abstract
In vitro electrophysiological techniques were used to examine the effect of bradykinin on guinea pig trachea and bronchus afferent nerve endings arising from the nodose or jugular ganglia. The data reveal that bradykinin activates nerve terminals of jugular C and Aδ fibers. Although the fibers were too few in number to study rigorously, bradykinin also stimulated nodose C fibers innervating the trachea and bronchus. In contrast, Aδ fibers arising from the nodose ganglion were unresponsive to bradykinin challenge. The responses in both jugular C and Aδ fiber types were blocked by a selective bradykinin B2 receptor antagonist and were not dependent on the efferent release of sensory neuropeptides. These data indicate that the sensitivity of guinea pig airway afferent fibers to bradykinin is dependent more on the ganglionic origin of the cell body than on the conduction velocity of its axon.
Footnotes
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Send reprint requests to: Bradley J. Undem, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins Asthma and Allergy Center, 5501 Hopkins Bayview Circle, Baltimore, MD 21224.
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↵1 This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health.
- Abbreviation:
- Hoe 140
- d-Arg-[Hyp3,Thi5,d-Tic7,Oic8]bradykinin
- Received August 31, 1998.
- Accepted December 17, 1998.
- The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
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