Go to JCI Insight
  • About
  • Editors
  • Consulting Editors
  • For authors
  • Publication ethics
  • Publication alerts by email
  • Advertising
  • Job board
  • Contact
  • Clinical Research and Public Health
  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • By specialty
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Gastroenterology
    • Immunology
    • Metabolism
    • Nephrology
    • Neuroscience
    • Oncology
    • Pulmonology
    • Vascular biology
    • All ...
  • Videos
    • Conversations with Giants in Medicine
    • Video Abstracts
  • Reviews
    • View all reviews ...
    • Pancreatic Cancer (Jul 2025)
    • Complement Biology and Therapeutics (May 2025)
    • Evolving insights into MASLD and MASH pathogenesis and treatment (Apr 2025)
    • Microbiome in Health and Disease (Feb 2025)
    • Substance Use Disorders (Oct 2024)
    • Clonal Hematopoiesis (Oct 2024)
    • Sex Differences in Medicine (Sep 2024)
    • View all review series ...
  • Viewpoint
  • Collections
    • In-Press Preview
    • Clinical Research and Public Health
    • Research Letters
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Editorials
    • Commentaries
    • Editor's notes
    • Reviews
    • Viewpoints
    • 100th anniversary
    • Top read articles

  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Specialties
  • Reviews
  • Review series
  • Conversations with Giants in Medicine
  • Video Abstracts
  • In-Press Preview
  • Clinical Research and Public Health
  • Research Letters
  • Letters to the Editor
  • Editorials
  • Commentaries
  • Editor's notes
  • Reviews
  • Viewpoints
  • 100th anniversary
  • Top read articles
  • About
  • Editors
  • Consulting Editors
  • For authors
  • Publication ethics
  • Publication alerts by email
  • Advertising
  • Job board
  • Contact
Top
  • View PDF
  • Download citation information
  • Send a comment
  • Terms of use
  • Standard abbreviations
  • Need help? Email the journal
  • Top
  • Abstract
  • Version history
  • Article usage
  • Citations to this article

Advertisement

Research Article Free access | 10.1172/JCI118916

An intrinsic adrenergic system in mammalian heart.

M H Huang, D S Friend, M E Sunday, K Singh, K Haley, K F Austen, R A Kelly, and T W Smith

Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Find articles by Huang, M. in: PubMed | Google Scholar

Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Find articles by Friend, D. in: PubMed | Google Scholar

Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Find articles by Sunday, M. in: PubMed | Google Scholar

Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Find articles by Singh, K. in: PubMed | Google Scholar

Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Find articles by Haley, K. in: PubMed | Google Scholar

Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Find articles by Austen, K. in: PubMed | Google Scholar

Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Find articles by Kelly, R. in: PubMed | Google Scholar

Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Find articles by Smith, T. in: PubMed | Google Scholar

Published September 15, 1996 - More info

Published in Volume 98, Issue 6 on September 15, 1996
J Clin Invest. 1996;98(6):1298–1303. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI118916.
© 1996 The American Society for Clinical Investigation
Published September 15, 1996 - Version history
View PDF
Abstract

We have identified a previously undescribed intrinsic cardiac adrenergic (ICA) cell type in rodent and human heart. Northern and Western blot analyses demonstrated that ICA cell isolates contain mRNA and protein of enzymes involved in catecholamine biosynthesis. Radioenzymatic catecholamine assays also revealed that the catecholamine profile of adult rat ICA cell isolates differed from that of sympathetic neurons. Unlike sympathetic neuronal cells, isolated ICA cells have abundant clear vesicles on electron microscopy. Endogenous norepinephrine and epinephrine constitutively released by ICA cells in vitro affect the spontaneous beating rate of neonatal rat cardiac myocytes in culture. Finally, ICA cells could be identified in human fetal hearts at a developmental stage before sympathetic innervation of the heart has been documented to occur. These findings support the concept that these cells constitute an ICA signaling system capable of participating in cardiac regulation that appears to be independent of sympathetic innervation.

Version history
  • Version 1 (September 15, 1996): No description

Article tools

  • View PDF
  • Download citation information
  • Send a comment
  • Terms of use
  • Standard abbreviations
  • Need help? Email the journal

Metrics

  • Article usage
  • Citations to this article

Go to

  • Top
  • Abstract
  • Version history
Advertisement
Advertisement

Copyright © 2025 American Society for Clinical Investigation
ISSN: 0021-9738 (print), 1558-8238 (online)

Sign up for email alerts