In the last decades new pharmacodynamic properties of beta-adrenoceptors have been discovered that could greatly impact in the use of beta-adrenergic agents in the clinical practice. Concepts such as multiple binding sites, constitutive activity, polymorphism and intracellular signaling of betaadrenoceptors may contribute in the discovery of more efficacious pharmacological agents for treatment...

The contributions of /Si-, B -̂, and a2-adrenoceptors in the posterior hypothalamus to the increased renal sympathetic nerve activity and decreased urinary sodium excretion resulting from environmental stress (air jet) in conscious spontaneously hypertensive rats were examined. Air stress increased mean arterial pressure and renal sympathetic nerve activity (54% from 7.0 ± 0.7 integrator resets/...

Kolaj M, Renaud LP. Presynaptic -adrenoceptors in median preoptic nucleus modulate inhibitory neurotransmission from subfornical organ and organum vasculosum lamina terminalis. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 292: R1907–R1915, 2007. First published January 11, 2007; doi:10.1152/ajpregu.00763.2006.—The median preoptic nucleus (MnPO) in the lamina terminalis receives a prominent catecholam...

b3-Adrenoceptor agonists have recently been introduced for the treatment of overactive urinary bladder syndrome. Their target, the b3-adrenoceptor, was discovered much later than b1and b2-adrenoceptors and exhibits unique properties which make extrapolation of findings from the other two subtypes difficult and the b3-adrenoceptor a less-understood subtype. This article discusses three aspects o...

Ryall, James G., Paul Gregorevic, David R. Plant, Martin N. Sillence, and Gordon S. Lynch. 2-Agonist fenoterol has greater effects on contractile function of rat skeletal muscles than clenbuterol. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 283: R1386–R1394, 2002. First published September 5, 2002; 10.1152/ajpregu.00324.2002.—Potential treatments for skeletal muscle wasting and weakness ideally poss...

The effect of epinephrine on phosphatidate phosphohydrolase (PAP) activity of isolated human hepatocytes was studied. Epineprine inhibited the enzyme activity progressively at concentrations above 0.1 µM, reaching a maximum inhibition of 64.5% at 100 µM concentration. Inclusion of alprenolol, a β-receptor blocker, in the incubation mixture abolished the inhibitory effect of epinephrine on P...

To investigate a1B-adrenoceptor function, we developed a phosphorothioate antisense oligodeoxynucleotide (AO) to inhibit the expression of the a1B-adrenoceptor subtype in DDT1 MF2 cells. We measured the cellular uptake of the AO and its effect on a1B-adrenoceptor mRNA expression, protein density, and coupling to phospholipase C. Cells treated with either a control oligodeoxynucleotide (CO) or m...

–Noradrenaline and adrenergic agonists were tested on pacemaker-like and silent neurons of the rat rostral ventrolateral medulla using intracellular recordings in coronal brainstem slices as well as in punches containing only the rostral ventrolateral medullary region. Noradrenaline (1–100 μM) depolarized or increased the frequency of discharge of all cells tested in a dose-dependent manner. Th...