Effects of Catecholamines on Metabolism

Abstract

The topic of the metabolic effects of catecholamines is one of interest to pharmacologists, physiologists and biochemists alike. From the reviewer’s point of view the definition of the term “metabolic” is important in determining the scope of the review. This term is generally defined by biochemists as including “all chemical processes within cells and tissues that are concerned with their building up and breaking down and in their functional operation” (West et al., 1966). Such a broad definition clearly encompasses both the traditional pharmacological and the traditional metabolic effects of the catecholamines. Indeed, the distinction between metabolic actions and other actions of catecholamines, once so clear, is now becoming less definite as more is becoming known about the molecular nature of the pharmacological effects of the catecholamines. On the one hand, the concept that adenylcyclase may be very closely associated with the adrenergic receptor, first clearly formulated by Robison, Butcher and Sutherland (1967) has opened up the possibility that all effects of catecholamines may ultimately be described in biochemical terms.