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Simultaneous determination of plasma noradrenaline and adrenaline kinetics

Responses to nitroprusside-induced hypotension and 2-deoxyglucose-induced glucopenia in the rabbit

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Summary

Liquid chromatographic fractionation and detection of exogenous radiolabelled and endogenous catechols was used to examine simultaneously the plasma kinetics of noradrenaline and adrenaline in the conscious rabbit. Plasma clearances and release of noradrenaline and adrenaline into plasma were compared before and during nitroprusside-induced hypotension and 2-deoxyglucose-induced glucopenia, stimuli purported to differentially affect catecholamine release from sympathetic neurons and the adrenal medulla. Plasma concentrations of dihydroxyphenylglycol (DHPG) were also measured to assess presynaptic sympathetic function.

Plasma clearances of adrenaline correlated with, but were significantly less than those of noradrenaline. Plasma clearances of both catecholamines showed significant decreases during nitroprusside-induced hypotension and 2-deoxyglucose-induced glucopenia. Glucopenia and hypotension increased the release into plasma of noradrenaline and adrenaline, but the adrenaline response relative to the noradrenaline response was greater during glucopenia than during hypotension. Plasma DHPG concentrations increased during glucopenia and hypotension, consistent with increased neuronal reuptake of noradrenaline and therefore a neuronal source — as opposed to an adrenal source — of most of the noradrenaline appearing in plasma during the stimuli. The increase in plasma DHPG relative to that of noradrenaline was greater after 2-deoxyglucose than after nitroprusside suggesting that the presynaptic handling of noradrenaline during glucopenia was different from that during hypotension or that the two stimuli released DHPG from regionally distinct sources.

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Author notes

  1. Oleg S. Medvedev

    Present address: Institute of Experimental Cardiology, USSR Cardiology Research Center, 3rd Cherepkovskava Str., 15A, 121552, Moscow, USSR

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Baker Medical Research Institute, Commercial Road, Prahran, 3181, Victoria, Australia

    Oleg S. Medvedev, Murray D. Esler, James A. Angus, Helen S. Cox & Graeme Eisenhofer

Authors
  1. Oleg S. Medvedev
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  2. Murray D. Esler
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  3. James A. Angus
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  4. Helen S. Cox
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  5. Graeme Eisenhofer
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Medvedev, O.S., Esler, M.D., Angus, J.A. et al. Simultaneous determination of plasma noradrenaline and adrenaline kinetics. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Arch Pharmacol 341, 192–199 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00169730

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00169730

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