Effect of Nicotine upon the Rate of Epinephrine Output from the Suprarenal Glands

抄録

1. Nicotine, intravenously injected, (0.025-0.5 mgrm. per kilo of body weight) called forth, in the first place, a remarkable, but very briefly continued augmentation of the epinephrine output from the suprarenals of cats. The augmentation began very soon after the injection and continued, as a rule, over about one minute and not longer than two minutes. The augmentation was then replaced by the depressant stage which lasted many minutes. At the time of maximum depression no epinephrine could be detected in some cases.
The effect of nicotine subcutaneously administered (0.4-1.0 mgrm. per kilo of body weight) is of the same nature, but far inferior and the duration of accelerating stage is somewhat longer.
2. The epinephrine output of the cats, the splanchnic nerves of which were acutely or previously divided, showed also the same tendency against nicotine; that is, the augmentation of a short duration and the long continued depressant stage were also well established. On the whole the splanchnectomy probably cannot modify the influence of nicotine upon the epinephrine output from the suprarenal glands.
Nicotine acts on the suprarenal medulla itself.