The relationship between adrenaline and beta 2-adrenoceptors on human lymphocytes.

To study the relation between plasma adrenaline (AD) and noradrenaline (NA) and the beta 2-adrenoceptor number (Bmax) on lymphocytes these variables were measured in the following three groups: a) In 67 normotensive volunteers after a rest period of at least 15 min. b) In 10 essential hypertensive (HT) and 10 age and sex matched normotensive (NT) subjects before and after a standardized bicycle exercise test (BE). c) In 10 bilaterally adrenalectomized females (AF) and 10 healthy age matched females (NF) before and after a mental arithmetic test (MA). Significant correlations were found between AD and Bmax in NT (r = 0.30, P = 0.015) and between the proportional increase in AD and the proportional increase in Bmax after BE (r = 0.60, P less than 0.005). The MA induced elevation of Bmax was blunted after adrenalectomy. All these findings point to a relation between AD and beta 2-adrenoceptor regulation.