The effect of age on the sensitivity of the alpha 1-adrenoceptor to phenylephrine and prazosin.

Certain beta-adrenoceptor-mediated functions seem to diminish with age; however, information on alpha-adrenoceptor-mediated function is sparse and often conflicting but overall suggests little age-related change. To assess an age-related alteration in the responsiveness to an alpha 1-adrenergic agonist and to estimate changes in the apparent affinity of the alpha 1-adrenoceptor for the antagonist prazosin, we infused phenylephrine into 12 healthy elderly subjects and 12 healthy young subjects before and after an oral dose of prazosin, and we compared the shift in the dose-response curves for the two groups. With this protocol we were unable to detect any age-related decline in sensitivity of the alpha-adrenoceptor to either agonist or antagonist. However, oral prazosin resulted in higher plasma concentrations and a consistently greater hypotensive effect in the elderly subjects than in the young subjects. We concluded that there was no difference in alpha 1-adrenoceptor sensitivity in the elderly persons, but that the kinetics of prazosin may be altered and that the response of the blood pressure to prazosin was increased because of the kinetic changes and possibly the physiologic changes associated with aging.