Influence of neuronal uptake on pre- and postjunctional effects of alpha-adrenoceptor agonists in tissues with noradrenaline--ATP cotransmission.

This study was undertaken in an attempt to explain why in some of the tissues in which noradrenaline and ATP act as co-transmitters the noradrenergic component predominates, while in others the predominant component is purinergic. Four different tissues were used: the epididymal portion of the rat vas deferens and the rabbit ear artery, tissues where the noradrenergic component predominates, and the prostatic portion of the rat vas deferens and the rabbit jejunal artery, where the purinergic component predominates. The noradrenaline content as well as the electrically-evoked release of noradrenaline were determined in all tissues. To determine the evoked release, the tissues were pretreated with pargyline (1 mmol.l-1) and then exposed to 3H-noradrenaline, washed out and transmurally stimulated (1 Hz). In addition, the influence of inhibition of neuronal uptake by desipramine (40 nmol.l-1) on pre- and postjunctional effects of adrenaline and alpha-methylnoradrenaline (and/or noradrenaline) was compared. The noradrenaline content of the tissues averaged: 17.4, 23.2, 3.1, and 4.8 micrograms.g-1 for the epididymal and the prostatic portions of the rat vas deferens and for the ear and the jejunal arteries of the rabbit, respectively. The fractional electrically-evoked release of 3H-noradrenaline was 2.02 and 2.04 x 10(-5) for the epididymal and the prostatic portions of the rat vas deferens, respectively, and 3.33 and 3.26 x 10(-5) for the ear and the jejunal arteries of the rabbit, respectively. Desipramine enhanced much more the postjunctional effect of noradrenaline, adrenaline, and alpha-methylnoradrenaline in the epididymal than in the prostatic portion of the rat vas deferens.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)