A brief history of the baroreceptor reflex: from Claude Bernard to Arthur C. Guyton. Illustrated with some classical experiments

The baroreceptor reflex is poorly known by most physicians even though is fundamental in stabilizing the blood pressure on a beat to beat basis and is crucial for survival. Its fascinating history is briefly reviewed in this article. In 1852 Claude Bernard discovered that the sympathetic nerves of t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Archivos de cardiología de México 2011-10, Vol.81 (4), p.330-336
Main Authors: Estañol, Bruno, Porras-Betancourt, Manuel, Padilla-Leyva, Miguel Ángel, Sentíes-Madrid, Horacio
Format: Article
Language:Spanish
Subjects:
Baroreflex
Bernard
Cardiology - history
France
Guyton
History, 19th Century
History, 20th Century
History, 21st Century
Humans
Neurology - history
Physiology - history
United States
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Summary:The baroreceptor reflex is poorly known by most physicians even though is fundamental in stabilizing the blood pressure on a beat to beat basis and is crucial for survival. Its fascinating history is briefly reviewed in this article. In 1852 Claude Bernard discovered that the sympathetic nerves of the neck innervate the blood vessels of the skin of the rabbit. Edgar Douglas Adrian in 1932 demonstrated that the sympathetic nerves that innervate the blood vessels discharge spontaneously at a rate of 4-6 per second and thus discovered the physiological basis of the vasomotor tone. In the XIX century Ludwig Traube and Karl Constantine Ewald Hering discovered that blood pressure fluctuates synchronously with respiratory movements and Sigmund Mayer observed that there are also slow non respiratory fluctuations of blood pressure. In 1921 Heinrich Ewald Hering found that high pressure baroreceptors are located in the carotid sinuses and demonstrated that the stimulation of the afferent nerve that innervates it induces bradycardia and hypotension. These studies were further advanced by Corneille Heymans who won the Nobel Prize for these studies in 1938. Later Cowley and Guyton produced sino-aortic denervation in dogs and thereby could demonstrate the fundamental importance of the baroreceptor reflex in the stabilization of blood pressure.
ISSN:1405-9940