a-Methyldopa acts through a metabolite in the central nervous system. Of the three metabolites most prominently considered as potential mediators of a-methyldopa hypotension — amethyldopamine, a-methylnorepinephrine (MNE), and a-methylepinephrine (ME) — ME is the most potent depressor agent following intravenous infusion into rats, following injection into the lateral ventricle, and following i...

The hypotensive action of methyldopa has been linked to production of the metabolites methyldopamine and methylnorepinephrine in brain. We have studied the effect of long-term (72 hour) intravenous infusions of methyldopa to awake restrained spontaneously hypertensive rats and normotensive Wistar-Kyoto control animals to look for differences in hypotensive effect, differences in concentrations ...

Direct measurements of arterial pressure, stroke volume (SV), and cardiac output (CO) were obtained in ether-anesthetized rats with established spontaneous hypertension (SHR) treated with alpha-methyldopa and compared to both untreated hypertensive and normotensive Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats. Left ventricular pumping ability was determined by the maximum levels of SV and CO reached during rapid in...

Methyldopa is a catecholamine used as an antihypertensive agent. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of a week treatment of a bi-daily dosage of αmethyldopa on the sympathetic nervous system of healthy volunteers as measured by four different techniques; (QT interval, heart rate variability (HRV), skin conductance and salivary cortisol). All volunteers received either 250mg α-m...

We studied the effect of 3-O-methyl-methyldopa (OMMD), the 3-O-methylated metabolite of the antihypertensive drug methyldopa (alpha-methyldopa, AMD), on blood pressure in the spontaneously hypertensive rat. OMMD lowered blood pressure in a dose-related manner when given orally or intraperitoneally. Its action lasted longer than that of AMD, and daily oral administration produced a cumulative fa...