BACKGROUND The effects of acute and repeated treatment with desipramine on the functional response of alpha2-adrenoceptors were tested in adult and 13-day old rats. The functional response measured was hypothermia that was induced by brimonidine, an alpha2-adrenoceptor agonist. The change in the extent of the brimonidine-induced hypothermia following pretreatment with either single or 4 twice-d...

1 In rat isolated vas deferens, the isotonic contractile responses to low doses of noradrenaline or adrenaline were antagonized, and those to high doses were potentiated, by yohimbine, piperoxan, phentolamine and tolazoline. Effects due to intermediate doses were not affected, or were potentiated within about 30 min, following an initial inhibition. 2 The alpha-adrenoceptor blockers thus caused...

1. The subtype and anatomical localization of beta-adrenoceptors mediating facilitation of stimulus-induced overflow of noradrenaline ('prejunctional beta-adrenoceptors') are not conclusively known to date. The present study was undertaken to characterize these receptors by use of pharmacological methods as well as to define their localization (prejunctional or postjunctional) with radio-ligand...

Dexmedetomidine is a highly specific, potent and selective alpha(2)-adrenoceptor agonist. Although intrathecal and epidural administration of dexmedetomidine has been found to produce analgesia, whether this analgesia results from an effect on spinal cord substantia gelatinosa (SG) neurons remains unclear. Here, we investigated the effects of dexmedetomidine on postsynaptic transmission in SG n...

Catecholamine-induced lipolysis in isolated human adipocytes during the first year of life was investigated. During this period fat cell size increased markedly. Basal and catecholamine-induced glycerol release were positively correlated with age when lipolysis was expressed per cell. However, when lipolysis was expressed per unit of cell surface area (micrometer squared), this correlation was ...

Gorman, Mark W., Martin Farias III, Keith N. Richmond, Johnathan D. Tune, and Eric O. Feigl. Role of endothelin in -adrenoceptor coronary vasoconstriction. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 288: H1937–H1942, 2005. First published December 9, 2004; doi:10.1152/ajpheart.01076.2004.—It has been proposed that -adrenoceptor vasoconstriction in coronary resistance vessels results not from -adrenoceptor...

Rationale: The ? 2 -adrenoceptor (? -AR), a prototypical GPCR (G protein-coupled receptor), couples to both G s and i proteins. Stimulation of the -AR is beneficial humans animals with heart failure presumably because it activates downstream -PI3K-Akt cell survival pathway. Cardiac signaling can be regulated by crosstalk or heterodimerization other GPCRs, but physiological pathophysiological si...

Introduction: Similarities in the memory impairment between Alzheimer patients and scopolamine treated animals have been reported. In the present study, the possible role of α-adrenergic receptors of the dorsal hippocampus on scopolamine state-dependent memory in adult male Wistar rats was evaluated. Methods: The animals were bilaterally implanted with chronic cannulae in the CA1 regions o...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE β2 -adrenoceptor agonists are widely used in the management of obstructive airway diseases. Besides their bronchodilatory effect, several studies suggest inhibitory effects on various aspects of inflammation. The aim of our study was to determine the efficacy of the long-acting β2 -adrenoceptor agonist olodaterol to inhibit pulmonary inflammation and to elucidate mechanis...

Spontaneous contractile force of muscle strips isolated from male rabbit urinary bladder dome (detrusor) and base (trigonal muscle) was significantly inhibited by isoproterenol (10(-7)-10(-5) M), a non-specific beta-adrenoceptor agonist or by terbutaline (10(-8)-10(-5) M), a selective beta 2-adrenoceptor agonist. The EC50 values for isoproterenol and terbutaline in detrusor were the same as tho...