Postnatal development of the beta-adrenergic receptor complex in brown adipose tissue of the rat.

The amount of specific (-)-3H-dihydroalprenolol binding sites in the crude membranes of brown adipose tissue is constant in the course of postnatal development of the rat. Contrarily, the activity of the isoprenaline and fluoride-stimulated adenylate cyclase undergoes rather pronounced changes with maximum enzyme activity measured shortly after birth and minimum activity between the 10th and 20th day. These data may be interpreted to mean that the binding and catalytical moiety of the beta-adrenergic receptor complex represents two functionally distinct entities which develop independently of each other.