Adrenergic innervation of the coronary arteries and the myocardium

The monoaminergic innervation of the coronary vessels and myocardium in the dog was studied by means of the histochemical fluorescence method. The distribution of monoaminergic terminals in the arterial wall depends on the diameter of the artery. In large arteries, the terminals are regularly distributed around the entire circumference, the fibres being situated between the elastic lamellae of the adventitia. The terminals within the media could not be detected. In small arteries, the sympathetic ground plexus aggregates in two parallel strands, the artery being between them. In arterioles, two thick fibres only accompany the vessel. The myocardium is innervated by means of a three-dimensional sympathetic ground plexus distributed between the myocardial cells independently of vessels. No difference in density of innervation was found between the right and left heart. The point-counting method, on the other hand, has revealed that the density of innervation in the left auricle is nearly twice as dense as in the left ventricle. The terminals innervating the myocardium are markedly thinner than the fibres innervating the arteries. Two-dimensional plexuses innervate the epicardium, endocardium and valves.