Effect of sodium-restricted diet and posture on norepinephrine kinetics in humans.

We used compartmental analysis to analyze the kinetics of distribution and metabolism of norepinephrine (NE) and to determine whether the increase in plasma norepinephrine concentration (PNE) during sodium restriction in humans is due to sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activation. [3H]-NE infusion and postinfusion decay were measured in young subjects in the supine position and during 60 min of standing during normal sodium (NS) diet and after 7 days of 10 meq/day sodium-restricted (SR) diet. The mean supine PNE was greater during SR diet compared with NS diet (154 +/- 9 vs. 185 +/- 12 pg/ml, P = 0.02, n = 10). During both NS and SR diets, upright PNE increased (163 +/- 4 vs. 359 +/- 38 pg/ml and 182 +/- 8 vs. 401 +/- 26 pg/ml, respectively, multivariate one-way analysis of variance, P less than 0.001, alpha = 0.05). The increases of PNE with both SR diet and upright posture were accompanied by a fall in NE metabolic clearance rate (MCR1). During SR diet this was due to a fall in the volume of distribution of NE (6.1 +/- 0.4 vs. 5.0 +/- 0.4 liters, P = 0.003, n = 10). In contrast to the effect of upright posture to increase NE release into the extra-vascular compartment (NE2), during SR diet there was no change in NE2 (1.63 +/- 0.09 vs. 1.62 +/- 0.1 micrograms.min-1.m-2, P = 0.97, n = 10). Thus the increase in PNE during SR diet in humans can be explained by a fall in the volume of distribution of NE, resulting in a decrease in MCR1.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)