McLean J R, Twarog B M, Bergofsky E H
J Auton Nerv Syst. 1985 Oct;14(2):111-23. doi: 10.1016/0165-1838(85)90069-4.
It would appear that susceptibility to chronic proliferative pulmonary hypertension in response to chronic alveolar hypoxia is most severe in species in which adrenergic innervation of pulmonary arteries is reduced or lacking. Intrapulmonary arteries of the rat have been reported to lack adrenergic innervation by some workers but not others. Since the rat develops severe proliferative pulmonary hypertension in response to prolonged alveolar hypoxia, the different divisions of the lung vasculature of Sprague-Dawley rats were thoroughly examined to determine the presence or absence of an adrenergic innervation. The degree of innervation in normal rats was compared with that of rats developing pulmonary hypertension. Both in normal and experimental pulmonary hypertensive rats the pulmonary arteries, all their branches and the small pulmonary veins with a smooth muscle media were found to be devoid of adrenergic innervation. In contrast, the cardiac-like muscle in the media of large pulmonary veins, the bronchial arteries and the vasa vasorum of larger vessels were richly innervated by adrenergic nerves. Thus the increase in medial smooth muscle which occurs in pulmonary arteries during chronic alveolar hypoxia is independent of a pre-existing adrenergic innervation or of such an innervation newly derived from that of adjacent vessels or structures. This is in contrast to systemic vessels where it has been suggested that increased adrenergic activity and density of innervation may augment hypertrophy of the media in hypertensive animals. Adrenergic nerves are suggested to have a protective action on pulmonary vessels.
似乎对于慢性肺泡缺氧引起的慢性增殖性肺动脉高压的易感性，在肺动脉肾上腺素能神经支配减少或缺乏的物种中最为严重。一些研究者报道大鼠的肺内动脉缺乏肾上腺素能神经支配，而另一些研究者则未发现此现象。由于大鼠在长期肺泡缺氧时会发生严重的增殖性肺动脉高压，因此对Sprague-Dawley大鼠肺血管系统的不同分支进行了全面检查，以确定是否存在肾上腺素能神经支配。将正常大鼠的神经支配程度与发生肺动脉高压的大鼠进行比较。在正常大鼠和实验性肺动脉高压大鼠中，均发现肺动脉及其所有分支以及具有平滑肌中层的小肺静脉均无肾上腺素能神经支配。相反，大肺静脉中层的类心肌、支气管动脉和较大血管的血管滋养管则有丰富的肾上腺素能神经支配。因此，在慢性肺泡缺氧期间肺动脉中层平滑肌的增加与预先存在的肾上腺素能神经支配无关，也与新从相邻血管或结构衍生而来的此类神经支配无关。这与体循环血管相反，在体循环血管中，有人提出肾上腺素能活性增加和神经支配密度增加可能会加剧高血压动物中层的肥大。有人认为肾上腺素能神经对肺血管有保护作用。
