Innervation of the cat lip by two groups of parasympathetic vasodilator fibres.

1. Electrical stimulation of the peripheral cut ends of the chorda tympani nerve proper (CTNP) and the chorda-lingual nerve (CLN) elicited a blood flow increase in the ipsilateral lower lip, tongue and submandibular gland in a stimulus intensity-dependent manner in anaesthetized cats. 2. Pretreatment with hexamethonium (1.0 mg kg-1, i.v.), an autonomic ganglionic blocker, significantly reduced the CTNP-induced blood flow increases in all of the above three sites as well as the CLN-induced blood flow in the lower lip, but it had no effects on the CLN-induced blood flow increases in the tongue and submandibular gland. 3. The CTNP stimulation-induced lower lip blood flow was not influenced by sectioning the lingual nerve proper, but it was abolished by section of either the CLN or the inferior alveolar nerve (IAN) in the mandibular canal. 4. The lip blood flow increases elicited reflexly by electrical stimulation of the upper gingiva, the central cut ends of the mylohyoid nerve and CLN were not affected by cutting of the CTNP, but were markedly reduced by pretreatment with hexamethonium and abolished by the section of the inferior alveolar nerve just distal to the mylohyoid nerve. These observations imply that the parasympathetic vasodilator fibres involved in trigeminally induced reflex vasodilatation responses do not travel with the CTNP. 5. These results suggest that there is a dual innervation of the cat lower lip by two groups of parasympathetic vasodilator fibres; in one case fibres originating from the facial nerve root are distributed to the lower lip via the CTNP, CLN and IAN and in the other fibres emanating from the glossopharyngeal nerve root project to the lower lip via the mandibular nerve and the IAN.