Cardiac angiotensin receptors: effects of selective angiotensin II receptor antagonists, DUP 753 and PD 121981, in rabbit heart.

Angiotensin II (AII) elicits a positive inotropic response in cardiac muscle preparations from several species including humans. The purpose of this study was to characterize the AII binding sites and inotropic responses in rabbit ventricle using the selective AII receptor antagonists/ligands, DuP 753 (AT1) and PD 121981 (AT2). Biphasic displacement of specific 125I-Sar1,Ile8-AII binding was observed with both DuP 753 and PD 121981, suggesting the presence of two AII binding sites. The high affinity site for DuP 753 (29 nM) was a low affinity site for PD 121981 (91 microM), and the high affinity site for PD 121981 (78 nM) was a low affinity site for DuP 753 (81 microM). Of the specific AII binding, 70% was DuP 753 (AT1)-sensitive sites. Positive inotropic responses to AII in isolated papillary muscles from rabbit heart were antagonized competitively by both DuP 753 and PD 121981. The potencies of DuP 753 (pA2 = 7.99) and PD 121981 (pA2 = 4.28) to antagonize AII inotropic responses were similar to their potencies to displace 125I-Sar1,Ile8-AII from AT1 sites. There was no apparent functional consequence of AII interaction with AT2 site. Inotropic responses to isoproterenol were unaffected by DuP 753 and PD 121981. Therefore, there are two binding sites for AII in rabbit ventricle; however, only one site, AT1, participates in the inotropic response to AII. The roles of these receptor subtypes in other cardiac responses to AII have yet to be determined. Also, DuP 753 and PD 121981 are useful tools to study these two AII binding sites in cardiac preparations.