Inhibitory effect of midaglizole on alpha adrenoceptor agonist-induced contractions of canine tracheal smooth muscle.

To determine why midaglizole is effective in some patients with severe asthma, we investigated the inhibitory effects of midaglizole, prazosin or yohimbine on the BHT 920-, phenylephrine-, or noradrenaline-induced contractions of canine tracheal smooth muscle. After pretreatment with atropine (10(-6) M) and propranolol (10(-6) M) and precontraction with serotonin (3 x 10(-7) M), the tracheal muscle showed contractile responses to the exogenous administration of both alpha 1 and alpha 2 adrenoceptor agonists. Every alpha antagonist inhibited these agonist-induced contractions. Inhibitory activity of midaglizole (10(-4) M) for the alpha agonists was BHT-920 greater than noradrenaline greater than or equal to phenylephrine, while that of prazosin (3 x 10(-6) M) was phenylephrine greater than noradrenaline greater than BHT-920. Moreover, yohimbine completely inhibited the contractions at the lower concentration of 3 x 10(-7) M than that of other two antagonists. Our findings demonstrate that midaglizole dose-dependently inhibits airway contractions induced by alpha adrenoceptor agonists.