Effects of some autonomic drugs on duodenal smooth muscle.

Longitudinal muscle strips (LMS) and circular muscle strips (CMS), 2 mm wide and 1.5--2 cm long, from opossum duodenum were exposed to some autonomic agonists. The cholinergic agonists, acetylcholine, carbachol, methacholine, and bethanechol stimulated only tonic contractions in LMS and tonic followed by phasic contractions in CMS. These effects were abolished by atropine 10(-6) M. The ED50S of all cholinergic agonists for LMS were significantly lower than for CMS. Norepinephrine caused initial contraction (abolished by phenoxybenzamine, 10(-4) M), followed by relaxation (abolished by propranolol, 10(-5) M), and isopropylnorepinephrine caused relaxation (abolished by propranolol, 10(-5) M) in both layers. There were no differences in relative potencies for adrenergic agonists between the layers. Tetrodotoxin did not affect the response to adrenergic agonists. Thus, the potency of cholinergic agonists is greater in longitudinal than in circular muscle, and the layers respond differently to cholinergic agonists. The alpha-adrenergic receptors mediate contraction and beta-adrenergic receptors mediate relaxation on the duodenal smooth muscle.