Stereoselectivity of the distribution of labelled noradrenaline in rabbit aortic strips after inhibition of the noradrenaline-metabolizing enzymes.

Rabbit aortic strips (nerve-free, reserpine-pretreated or normal) whose noradrenaline-metabolizing enzymes were inhibited (by in vitro treatment with 0.5 mM pargyline for 30 min and by the presence of 0.1mM U-0521) were exposed to 1.18 muM labelled (-)- or (+)noradrenaline for 30 min. At the end of the incubation period some strips were used for analysis of radioactive (i.e., of noradrenaline and its metabolites), while for others the efflux of radioactivity was determined during 250 min of wash out with amine-free solution. An estimate of the original distribution of the amine into the various extraneuronal and neuronal compartments of the tissue was obtained by compartmental analysis of the efflux curves. 1. The mechanisms responsible for the accumulation of radioactivity in extraneuronal and axoplasmic compartments lack stereoselectivity; the rate constants for the efflux of radioactivity from these compartments are the same for (-)- and (+)noradrenaline. 2. The accumulation of radioactivity in storage vesicles is stereospecific with preference for the (-)isomer. 3. Despite the use of enzyme inhibitors, the "late neuronal efflux" of radioactivity (i.e., the efflux collected between the 200th and 250th min of wash out) contained a considerable proportion of metabolites of noradrenaline. The metabolism of noradrenaline was stereoselective: while dihydroxyphenylglycol (DOPEG) was the predominant metabolite in the efflux from strips incubated with (-)noradrenaline, a considerable part of the efflux from strips incubated with the (+) isomer consisted of dihydroxymandelic acid and "O-methylated and deaminated" metabolites (in addition to DOPEG).