Target size of the adenosine Ri receptor.

The adenosine receptor of rat cerebral-cortical membranes was examined by radiation inactivation. In control membranes the receptor is distributed between high- and low-affinity states, that can be preferentially expressed by Mg2+ ions and guanine nucleotides respectively. Upon exposure to increasing doses of radiation, the high-affinity receptor decayed linearly as a function of radiation dose. This decay rate corresponded to a target size of 63,000 Da, when compared with the decay of the muscarinic cholinergic receptor that was also measured in these membranes.