Postnatal maturation of noradrenaline uptake and release in cat papillary muscles.

Catecholamine uptake and release have been studied in isolated right ventricular papillary muscles from kittens aged less than 24 hours, 16 to 18 days and 28 to 32 days. Under the age of 24 h catecholamine uptake (uptake I) does not appear to be functioning and at this age there is a significantly lower response to tyramine. These results suggest that myocardial sympathetic innervation continues to mature, in the cat, after birth.