Desensitization of beta-adrenergic receptor-mediated vascular smooth muscle relaxation

Responsiveness to catecholamines may be blunted after prolonged exposure to an agonist; this phenomenon, termed desensitization, is often mediated by receptor down-regulation. beta-Adrenergic receptors mediate relaxation of vascular smooth muscle. We have examined the possibility that this response may be desensitized after prolonged exposure to increased concentrations of epinephrine. Rats were treated with epinephrine infusions (300 micrograms/kg/hr from a minipump) for 7 days and had levels of plasma epinephrine 70-fold greater than those of controls. The mesenteric artery rings from the epinephrine-treated rats contracted normally when exposed to serotonin; however, the extent of relaxation promoted by the beta-adrenergic agonist isoproterenol was blunted (86 +/- 4 vs. 43 +/- 9%; p less than 0.05). Acetylcholine and nitroglycerine, which may act through a cyclic GMP mechanism, caused virtually identical relaxation responses in both control and epinephrine-treated groups. To determine the mechanism for the loss in responsiveness to isoproterenol, we measured adrenergic receptors in individual mesenteric arteries using [125I]cyanopindolol. Specific binding of [125I]cyanopindolol was found to have the expected characteristics of interaction with beta receptors. There was no difference in the number of beta-adrenergic receptors between control and epinephrine-treated animals (24 +/- 5 vs. 26 +/- 6 fmol/mg of protein), although there was significantly marked down-regulation of beta-adrenergic receptors in hearts (23 +/- 2 vs. 10 +/- 1 fmol/mg of protein; p less than 0.001) and lungs (172 +/- 29 vs. 76 +/- 7 fmol/mg of protein; p less than 0.01) in the same rats. The ability of isoproterenol to stimulate cyclic AMP production in the mesenteric arteries from the two groups was not significantly different (20.3 +/- 3.5 vs. 23.8 +/- 4.7 pmol of cAMP/mg of protein/2 min). Furthermore, mesenteric artery relaxation was found to be decreased in response to the cyclic AMP analogue dibutyryl cyclic AMP (45 +/- 2.0 vs. 28 +/- 2.0%; p less than 0.001) in the epinephrine-infused rats. These data suggest that the desensitization of beta-adrenergic receptor-mediated smooth muscle relaxation may be caused by a mechanism distal to cyclic AMP production.