The Transport of Noradrenaline Between two Simultaneously Performed Ligations of the Sciatic Nerves of Rat and Cat

ABSTRACT The behaviour of noradrenaline (NA) in double ligated rat and cat sciatic nerves was studied histo‐chemically, using the fluorescence method of Hillarp and coworkers, and biochemically using the trihydroxyindole method. It was found that a large amount of the NA in thc nerve betwcen the two ligations was transported down to the part just above the low ligation. By both method:; it was shown that during the first hours after the ligation the course of accumulation of NA in the nerve just proximal to the low ligation was about the same as the accumulation curve for the nerve (connected to the cell bodies) above the high ligature. Thereafter no further changes were found to occur in the nerve between the constrictions, whereas in the part above the high ligature the accumulation of NA continued as described earlier. The total NA content in the nerve between the two ligatures did not exceed the amount of a normal nerve of the same length. It was concluded that the transport mechanism in the adrenergic fibres is mainly independent of the cell hody (and the nerve terminals) and that no increase in the NA content in the axons occurs after a ligation of the nerve. Furthermore, the present study gives support to the earlier obtained data for the transport of amine granules in the sciatic nerve of rat and cat.