Effects of moxonidine and clonidine on potassium excretion in Sprague-Dawley rats

Recently we demonstrated that clonidine and moxonidine exert specific action on fractional fluid and Na+ excretion in anaesthetised Sprague-Dawley rats. Classically, most of the diuretics used induce an increased K+ excretion, at least in part due to Na+ load in the distal tubule and exchange of Na+ by K+. Therefore, we studied the effects of moxonidine and clonidine on K+ excretion in anaesthetised Sprague-Dawley rats. Moxonidine (0.25 and 0.5 mg kg-1 body wt. i.v.) increased transiently K+ (1.0 +/- 0.3 -1.9 +/- 0.4 and 0.9 +/- 0.2 -2.9 +0.7 micromol min-1 100 g body wt.) and Na+ (1.4 +/- 1.0 -6. 9 +/- 3.1 and 0.8 +/- 0.36 -6.6 +/- 1.5 micromol min-1100 g body wt.) excretion. Clonidine (0.25 mg kg-1) caused a more pronounced increase in K+ (1.0 +/- 0.1 -2.7 +/- 0.4 micromol min-1 100 g body wt.) and Na+ (0.6 +/- 0.3 -9.5 +/- 0.4 micromol min-1 100 g body wt.) excretion, whereas the higher dose of 0.5 mg kg-1 body wt. had less effect as compared to moxonidine (K+: 0.8 +/- 0.1 -1.7 +/- 0.2 micromol min-1 100 g body wt., Na+: 0.3 +/- 0.1 -3.4 +/- 1.0 micromol min-1 100 g body wt.). The increased electrolyte excretion returned (similar to moxonidine) to baseline levels within 20 min after injection of the drugs. Antagonists such as idazoxan and yohimbine did not change K+ and Na+ excretion by their own. Both, the non-selective imidazoline/alpha2-adrenoceptor antagonist idazoxan and the pure alpha2-adrenoceptor antagonist yohimbine attenuated the moxonidin-induced effects on K+ and Na+ excretion. This could be also observed with clonidine and simultaneous injection of these two antagonists. Our results demonstrate that moxonidine and clonidine also increase renal K+ excretion in this animal model. K+and Na+ excretion show a parallel behaviour, indicating that the increased K+ excretion is mainly due to Na+ load in the tubular system.