Functional development of the parasympathetic innervation of the sino-auricular node in newborn rabbits, cats and guinea pigs

The effects of supramaximal vagus nerve stimulation on heart rate were studied in newborn rabbits, cats and guinea pigs. The analysis of the stimulus-effect curve revealed that the earlier proposed relationship: log If/IO = H.f (IO is the steady state PP-interval before and If during stimulation, f is the stimulus frequency, and H the slope of the line) accurately summarizes the relation in rabbits, while with minor deviations it also holds for newborn cats and guinea pigs. Thus, the vagus effect for each nerve and animal is characterized by the slope of the line, H. In rabbits and cats the vagus effect decreased during the first postnatal week to about 1/3 and 1/5 of the initial value at birth. Guinea pigs, however, did not show such a postnatal change of the vagus effect. In comparison with rabbits and cats these animals are born at a relatively late ontogenetic stage. Therefore, we hypothesized that the decrease in vagus effect is related to the stage of development and occurs mainly before birth in this species.