Effects of pyrogen on the medullary temperature-responsive neurone of rabbits.

Effects of intravenously injected endogenous pyrogen on the unit activity of temperature-responsive neurones (TR neurones) of medulla oblongata were investigated in urethanized rabbits with an intact or lesioned preoptic/anterior hypothalamic area (PO/AH). TR neurones of the medulla responded to pyrogen in the same manner as did those of the PO/AH; the firing rate in the warm-responsive neurones were depressed and the cold-responsive neurones augmented. However, one-fourth of the medullary TR neurones did not respond to pyrogen in the PO/AH intact group (the control group). Following lesion of the PO/AH, the relative frequencies of TR neurones affected by pyrogen decreased as compared with those in control, and such was suggested to be more apparent in TR neurones discharging at rates of 10 imp./sec or more. Effects of the PO/AH-lesion were also seen in that the magnitude of the facilitatory or inhibitory effect of pyrogen was reduced in the PO/AH-lesioned group as compared with the control group. In some TR neurones an antipyretic agent (Sulpyrine, 48--151 mg/kg) was found to abolish responses to pyrogen.