The assumption of upright posture by patients with liver cirrhosis leads to striking activation of adrenergic and renin-angiotensin systems. The tilting-induced modifications in renal function of eight healthy controls and 14 untreated patients with liver cirrhosis and ascites were related to plasma concentrations of noradrenaline, renin activity and aldosterone. All patients had preserved rena...

The aim of the study was to investigate the role of glutamate residue 113 in transmembrane domain 2 of the human noradrenaline transporter in determining cell surface expression and functional activity. This residue is absolutely conserved in all members of the Na+- and Cl--dependent transporter family. Mutations to alanine (hE113A), aspartate (hE113D) and glutamine (hE113Q) were achieved by si...

OBJECTIVES To assess the impact of vasopressin on the microcirculation and to develop a predictive model to estimate the probability of microcirculatory recruitment in patients with septic shock. METHODS This prospective interventional study included patients with septic shock receiving noradrenaline for less than 48 hours. We infused vasopressin at 0.04 U/min for one hour. Hemodynamic measur...

Objective: We recently reported the hyper-responsiveness of human skeletal muscle resistance arteries (SkMRAs) to noradrenaline in critical limb ischaemia (CLI). In this study we investigated the characteristics of a -adrenoceptor subtypes and evaluated the agonist 1 affinity and adrenoceptor reserve in the ischaemic arteries. Methods: Human SkMRAs were isolated from non-ischaemic and ischaemic...

OBJECTIVE The aim was to examine the adrenergic modulation of endogenous acetylcholine (ACh) release from vagal nerve terminals in the in vivo heart. METHODS Using dialysis technique in anesthetized cats, we investigated the influence of exogenous noradrenaline on dialysate ACh response. Dialysis probes were implanted in the left ventricular myocardium and perfused with Krebs-Henseleit buffer...

In 1965, Schildkraut postulated that noradrenaline may play a pivotal role in the aetiology of depression. In favour of this hypothesis was the observation that the antihypertensive drug reserpine, which depletes central and peripheral vesicular stores of catecholamines such as noradrenaline, can precipitate depression in patients in remission. The experimental drug α-methyl-paratyrosine that b...

OBJECTIVE To assess the effect of defibrillation shocks on cardiac and circulating catecholamines. DESIGN Prospective examination of myocardial catecholamine balance during dc shock by simultaneous determination of arterial and coronary sinus plasma concentrations. Internal countershocks (10-34 J) were applied in 30 patients after initiation of ventricular fibrillation for a routine implantab...

A contraction of the rabbit ear artery can be induced by depolarizing the cells with a K-rich solution if Ca is present. 10(-9)-10(-6) M noradrenaline and 10(-8)-10(-7) M histamine cause a contraction of this tissue without modifying the membrane potential. If the histamine concentration exceeds 10(-7) M some depolarization of the membrane also occurs. Both noradrenaline and histamine also indu...

The concentrations and alpha-methyl-p-tyrosine (alpha-MPT) induced disappearance of catecholamines, adrenaline, noradrenaline and dopamine, were measured in selected areas of the brainstem and hypothalamus of spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA)-salt hypertensive rats. The catecholamine levels were measured by a sensitive radioenzymatic assay method combi...

1. Changes in plasma noradrenaline levels and heart rate were used as measures of baroreflex sensitivity in six hypertensive subjects given serial incremental doses of sodium nitroprusside (intravenously) to lower blood pressure. 2. The rises in both heart rate and plasma noradrenaline concentration were linearly related to the decrement in blood pressure and inversely related to the severity o...