Time course of resensitization of rat uterine beta-adrenoceptor system

The time course of resensitization of the down-regulated beta-adrenoceptor system of rat myometrium was studied. The isoprenaline-induced decrease of myometrial cAMP reversed rather rapidly and after 4 and 8 days no significant change of the cAMP level was demonstrated, however, the cAMP level was higher than in the control myometrium after 12 days. The elevated phosphodiesterase activity decreased to 80% of control activity after 4 days, but returned to control activity after 8 days. The decreased number of beta-adrenoceptors increased gradually after discontinuing the treatment and reached the number of the controls after 12 days. Our results suggest that the resensitization of the beta-adrenoceptor-cAMP-system is rather complex, the normalization of the cAMP content and the phosphodiesterase activity is more rapid than the normalization of the beta-adrenoceptor number which is a rather slow process in myometrial tissue.