Calcium antagonists inhibit positive chronotropic responses to α1-adrenoceptor activation in rat isolated atria

Abstract

Positive chronotropic responses of rat isolated atria to phenylephrine were reduced by propranolol (0.3 μM) and the residual response was further depressed by the selective α 1-adrenoceptor antagonist prazosin (1 nM) but not yohimbine (10 nM), confirming that a component of the response to phenylephrine was due to activation of α 1-adrenoceptors. When β-madrenoceptors were blocked by propranolol, the positive chronotropic response to phenylephrine was enhanced by increasing the calcium concentration and by the calcium channel activator Bay K 8644 (0.1 μM), whereas the response was decreased by lowering the calcium concentration and by the calcium antagonists verapamil (10 nM), nifedipine (10 nM) and diltiazem (100 nM). In the presence of prazosin, when phenylephrine acts only on β-adrenoceptors, calcium antagonists had no effect on the response. In rat isolated aortic strips in a calcium-free, high K + (40 mM) solution, verapamil (10 nM), nifedipine (10 nM) and diltiazem (100 nM) shifted the calcium-induced contraction curves to the right, but prazosin (10 nM) had no effect, indicating that it is not a calcium antagonist. The calcium antagonists in the concentrations stated above had no effect on phenylephrine-induced contractions of rat aortic strips in normal Krebs-Henseleit solution, indicating thay they did not block α 1-adrenoceptors in these concentrations. Taken together, these data suggest that the positive chronotropic effect of phenylephrine resulting from activation of α 1-adrenoceptors involves an increased influx of calcium through channels that are sensitive to organic calcium antagonists.