Ontogeny of positive inotropic responses to sympathomimetic agents and of myocardial adrenoceptors in rats.

Positive inotropic efficacies (maximal increase in contractile force) and potencies of the alpha-adrenoceptor agonist methoxamine and beta-adrenoceptor agonist isoprenaline were determined on electrically driven (1 Hz) ventricular strips from rats aged 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 6, and 10 (adult) weeks. The inotropic response to methoxamine significantly decreased after 2 weeks of age. The inotropic potency of isoprenaline was slightly but significantly lower at all ages than at 0.5 weeks of age. Up to 2 weeks of age, the maximal inotropic effect of methoxamine was comparable with that of isoprenaline, thereafter it was but markedly less. Phenylephrine behaved like methoxamine, and noradrenaline like isoprenaline. The effect of methoxamine was antagonized by prazosin but not by propranolol; the reverse was true for isoprenaline. Injections at birth of triiodothyronine and dexamethasone exerted minimal effects on the inotropic responses to methoxamine and isoprenaline. Chemical sympathectomy with 6-hydroxydopamine caused supersensitivity to the inotropic effects of isoprenaline but produced subsensitivity to responses to methoxamine at 1 week; effects of methoxamine at 3 and 6 weeks of age were not altered by sympathectomy. No significant differences in alpha 1- or beta 1-adrenoceptor densities or affinities in ventricular membranes from 7-day-old and adult rats were found. It is concluded that the positive inotropic responses to sympathomimetic amines decline with age, the decline is most marked in the case of alpha 1-adrenoreceptor- mediated effects, and these changes do not appear to be due to a decrease in the number or affinity of alpha 1- and beta 1-adrenoceptors.