Cardioaccelerator action of angiotensin

¹ Department of Physiology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin

Effects of synthetic angiotensin II on heart rate and blood pressure were determined in dogs under the influence of morphine (3 mg/kg) and chloralose (90 mg/kg). Angiotensin in total doses of 2.5–20 µg, rapidly injected intravenously in intact dogs, caused an initial decrease in heart rate followed by a rise above the control level, despite the continued elevation of arterial blood pressure. When the degree of rise in arterial pressure was buffered by a mechanical compensator connected with the abdominal aorta, rapid intravenous angiotensin injection produced no initial cardioinhibitory phase, and the magnitude of the accleration of heart rate was much greater than in the unbuffered animal. Slow intravenous infusion of angiotensin in some cases caused only a rise in heart rate. In sinoaortic denervated animals both blood pressure and heart rate were greatly increased when a total dose of 10 µg angiotensin was rapidly injected intravenously. Thus, it is demonstrated that the cardioinhibitory response to angiotensin depends largely or exclusively on reflex effects from sinoaortic pressoreceptors, and that angiotensin has a strong cardioaccelerator action which is exerted through the efferent nerves to the heart.

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