Prejunctional ß-adrenoceptors and hypertension: a hypothesis revisited

Abstract

In the January 1981 edition of TIPS an article by Henryk Majewski and Michael Rand ‘Adrenaline-mediated hypertension: a clue to the antihypertensive effect of ß-adrenoceptor blocking drugs’ set forth the hypothesis that the development of hypertension was due to increased adrenaline release from the adrenal medulla during stress. It was suggested that the adrenaline activated prejunctional ß-adrenoceptors at sympathetic nerve endings which resulted in facilitation of noradrenaline release and hence, increased vascular tone. Circulating adrenaline might directly activate prejunctional ß-adrenoceptors but the authors postulated that adrenaline was taken up by noradrenergic nerves and subsequently released as a co-transmitter to activate the receptors and that this was a more important effect. In the present article, they review the hypothesis in the light of developments since the initial proposal was published.