Abstract
The effect of an acute temperature increase on the control of the heart of the Antarctic teleost Pagothenia borchgrevinki was examined. Heart rate was thermally independent over the range −1.2°C to 3°C, although increasing the temperature from −1.2°C to 3°C elicited a decrease in ventral aortic pressure. Administration of the muscarinic receptor antagonist atropine and the β-adrenoreceptor antagonist sotalol abolished the thermal independence of heart rate, with heart rate increasing at Q10=2. As temperature was increased from −1.2°C to 3°C, cholinergic tone on the heart also increased, from 44.6±4.2% to 70.0±8.4%. At the same time the adrenergic tone increased from 35.5±3.3% to 43.0±3.1%, but the effect on the heart was masked by the increase of cholinergic tone, leading to the thermal independence of heart rate.
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