Ascending pathways mediating somatoautonomic reflexes in exercising dogs.

The ascending spinal pathways mediating somatocardiovascular reflexes during exercise were studied in unanesthetized dogs by placing lesions in the lumbar spinal cord. After training to run on a treadmill with hindlimbs only, 20 dogs were anesthetized and instrumented using sterile surgical techniques. To chronically record heart rate and arterial blood pressure, the aorta was cannulated via the omocervical artery. To test the intactness of descending spinal sympathetic pathways, reflex pressor responses to baroreceptor hypotension were produced by bilateral carotid arterial occlusion using pneumatic vessel occluders placed around the common carotid arteries. To generate transient ischemic exercise (120 s), a pneumatic occluder was placed around the left iliac artery. Eight to 10 days after instrumentation, blood pressure and heart rate were monitored at rest and during hindlimb running with and without simultaneous iliac arterial occlusion. The modest pressor response and tachycardia elicited by hindlimb exercise were markedly augmented by simultaneous hindlimb ischemia (i.e., iliac arterial occlusion). Lesion placement in the dorsolateral sulcus area and the dorsolateral funiculus at L2 significantly reduced the blood pressure and heart rate responses to simultaneous exercise occlusion. The cardiovascular responses to nonischemic exercise and bilateral carotid arterial occlusion were not altered by such spinal sections. It is concluded that in the dog the ascending spinal pathways mediating cardiovascular responses to ischemic exercise are located in the lateral funiculus, including the dorsolateral sulcus area and dorsolateral funiculus.