Responses of the simultaneously-perfused hepatic arterial and portal venous vascular beds of the dog to histamine and 5-hydroxytryptamine.

1 The sympathetically-innervated hepatic arterial and portal venous vascular beds of the dog were perfused simultaneously in situ. 2 Histamine and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) were injected intra-arterially and intraportally in graded, increasing doses. 3 Intra-arterial histamine evoked decreases in hepatic arterial vascular resistance (HAVR) and increases in hepatic portal vascular resistance (HPVR). 4 Intraportal injections of histamine caused increases in HPVR and decreases in HAVR. 5 The time courses of the arterial responses to intraportal histamine and of the portal responses to intra-arterial histamine, compared with any systemic effects, showed that these effects on the liver vasculature could not be the result of recirculation of histamine. 6 Intra-arterial 5-HT evoked biphasic changes in HAVR and small falls in HPVR. Intraportal 5-HT caused falls in HPVR at low doses and rises at high doses, together, typically, with biphasic effects on HAVR. 7 It is unlikely that the arterial effects of intraportal 5-HT and the portal effects of intra-arterial 5-HT were due to recirculation of the vasoactive material. 8 Pathophysiologically, both histamine and 5-HT are released from the gastrointestinal tract into the portal vein. These experiments show that such release may affect the hepatic arterial vascular resistance (and therefore blood flow) even though vasoactive levels of the autacoids are not attained in the systemic circulation.