Calcium antagonistic properties of nicardipine, a dihydropyridine derivative assessed in isolated cerebral arteries and cardiac muscle.

Calcium antagonistic properties of nicardipine (YC-93), a 1,4-dihydropyridine derivative, were studied in isolated cerebral artery and cardiac tissues of rabbits and dogs. Calcium antagonism was assessed in electrically stimulated rabbit basilar artery. Nicardipine at 10(-7) mol/l shifted to the right the dose-response curve for Ca of the phasic contraction evoked by electrical stimulation with an alternating current, and at higher concentration it reduced the maximum tension and slope of the dose-response curve. Nicardipine inhibited the augmented contraction produced by high K, k-strophanthin and 5-hydroxytryptamine. It also caused dose-dependent inhibition of 45Ca uptake enhanced by 80 mmol/l K in dog basilar artery, and had a slight effect on the resting 45Ca uptake. In rabbit basilar artery treated with saponin, nicardipine in a dose of 10(-5) mol/l had no apparent effect on the increase in tension induced by excess Ca. Nicardipine had negative inotropic and chronotropic actions. These results suggest that nicardipine, like nifedipine, has a relative high vascular selectivity, and primarily acts by inhibiting Ca influx through the plasma membrane of vascular and cardiac tissues.