Effects of adrenaline on human blood platelets.

1. Adrenaline at concentrations too low to cause aggregation of human platelets potentiates the aggregation by adenosine diphosphate. Noradrenaline has the same effect but is less active than adrenaline; isopropylnoradrenaline is inactive or inhibitory.2. The potentiation of adenosine diphosphate by catecholamines is blocked by the adrenergic alpha-receptor antagonists phentolamine and dihydroergotamine but not by 2-halogenoethylamines or by adrenergic beta-receptor antagonists.3. Both the first and second phases of adenosine diphosphate aggregation are potentiated by catecholamines but the second phase more than the first.4. The release from the platelets of adenine nucleotides which is associated with the second phase of aggregation is also increased by adrenaline.