Comparative pharmacology of histamine H2-receptor antagonists

There was no significant difference between the concentration-dependent inhibitory effects produced by roxatidine acetate, roxatidine and ranitidine on adenylate cyclase derived from isolated and enriched guinea-pig parietal cells. All the compounds shifted the concentration-response curve of histamine to the right and transformation of this data to Schild-plots produced straight lines with slopes greater than 1 but not significantly different from each other. The pA2 values characterising the potencies were roxatidine acetate 6.85 +/- 0.86, roxatidine 7.14 +/- 0.04, and ranitidine 6.92 +/- 0.01. Histamine-stimulated acid production from isolated guinea-pig parietal cells, measured by the 14C-aminopyrine accumulation technique, was similarly affected by the 3 compounds. Schild-plot slopes of roxatidine acetate and ranitidine were not significantly different from unity and pA2 values were similar to those of the adenylate cyclase inhibition, roxatidine acetate 7.15 +/- 0.09, roxatidine 7.03 +/- 0.02, and ranitidine 6.83 +/- 0.10. In conclusion, roxatidine acetate and its major metabolite roxatidine behave like competitive antagonists with potencies similar to ranitidine on H2-receptors on the guinea-pig parietal cell.