Reinnervation of the Transplanted Heart — Why Is It Important?

Abstract

The ability of the heart to respond to the demands of exercise through an increase in output is a complex physiologic process that involves intrinsic properties of heart muscle as well as the regulatory function of the autonomic nervous system. With the circulatory system intact, it is difficult to determine the part that each of these properties plays in the normal physiologic response to exercise. The occurrence of complete surgical denervation of the heart after transplantation has offered the opportunity to observe the physiology of the intrinsic adaptive mechanisms of the heart when they are unaffected by the autonomic nervous . . .