Catecholamines of endoneurial laryngeal paraganglia in the rat.

The catecholamines in the recurrent and superior laryngeal nerves of the rat were assayed by high performance liquid chromatography. The nerves were shown to contain high levels of dopamine (1.9 +/- 0.6 and 2.3 +/- 0.4 pmol, respectively) and noradrenaline (1.3 +/- 0.3 and 0.9 +/- 0.2 pmol, respectively). No adrenaline could be detected in any of the nerves. Reserpine markedly depleted the stores of these amines in both nerves. A significant increase in dopamine level was seen in the superior laryngeal nerve after treatment with a monoaminoxidase inhibitor, but not in the recurrent laryngeal nerve. The high levels of dopamine detected are presumably derived from endoneurial paraganglia which were demonstrated by glyoxylic acid-induced fluorescence. The source of noradrenaline is less evident, but noradrenaline is probably stored in both endoneurial paraganglia and in sympathetic nerve endings.