Neurogenic inflammation: Axon reflex in pigs

Conclusions

• 1. The striking similarities between neurogenic inflammation and antidromic vasodilatation in man an pig offers a reliable model for pharmacological investigations of mechanisms responsible for these actions.

• 2. Apart from primates, pig skin appears to be the only animal model which allows investigations of the axon reflex.

• 3. Vasodilation induced by antidromic electrical stimulation is obviously limited by the amount of mediator(s) e.g. substance P and calcitonin gene related peptide, available at the afferent nerve endings. A transient exhaustion of the mediator(s) is probably responsible for the reduction or total disappearance of antidromic vasodilatation, but the effect appears to be restored by axonal transport of the mediator(s).