Gastric atropine-sensitive excitation by peripheral vagal stimulation after hexamethonium. Antidromic activation of afferents?

Experiments were performed in chloralosed cats with ligated adrenals with recording of arterial blood pressure, heat rate and gastric volume, the latter with a balloon method. Electric activation of the peripheral cut vagus at low and high intensity induced gastric excitatory and relaxatory responses, respectively. Hexamethonium blocked the stimulation-bound bradycardia but now high intensities induced excitatory gastric responses, resistant to alpha- and beta-adrenergic blocking agents and naloxone but sensitive to atropine. Heating of the intact vagus, to selectively activate thin afferents, resulted in gastric inhibition, due to vago-vagal reflex activation. When the nerve had been proximally cut, local nerve heating induced excitatory gastric responses, with the same pharmacological characteristics as those caused by electric nerve stimulation. The observations suggest that the hexamethonium-resistant gastric excitatory responses to peripheral vagal stimulation are due to antidromic activation of thin afferents which are proposed to function in axon reflexes affecting gastric motility.