The effects of bepridil, compared with calcium-channel inhibitors and calmodulin antagonists on both spontaneous activity and contractions induced by potassium or phenylephrine in rat portal vein.

Bepridil is known to block calcium channels in some vascular tissues. Recent work has shown that bepridil also antagonises calmodulin. The present study attempted to more fully characterize the vasodilator actions of bepridil by comparing it with the known calcium channel blocking drugs, nifedipine, diltiazem, verapamil and flunarizine, the calmodulin inhibitors, trifluoperazine and W7 and propylmethylenedioxyindene, which is thought to act intracellularly, on rat portal vein. The relative activities of the test drugs were compared on spontaneous activity and on all components of the contractile responses to potassium and phenylephrine. Bepridil inhibited all components of the potassium and phenylephrine responses equally, actions similar to those of the intracellular acting drugs. The exception to this was trifluoperazine which also exerted alpha-adrenoceptor blocking actions. In contrast the calcium channel blocking drugs, with the exception of verapamil, inhibited the tonic component of both spasmogen responses more than the phasic component. Bepridil like the intracellular acting drugs, but unlike the calcium channel blockers, markedly increased the frequency of spontaneous contractions whilst reducing amplitude. It is concluded that the profile of bepridil on rat portal vein more closely resembles that of intracellularly acting drugs than that of classical calcium channel inhibitors.