Comparative studies of the postjunctional activities of some very potent muscarinic agonists

This study was undertaken to determine the potencies of seven muscarinic agonists (methylfurtrethonium, dioxolane, oxathiolane, carbachol, muscarine, muscarone and oxotremorine) on the postjunctional muscarinic receptors of seven isolated preparations (guinea pig taenia-coli, ileum, jejunum, trachea and atria and rat jejunum and urinary bladder). The results indicate that the rank order of sensitivity of the preparations varies independently of the potency of the agonist used and it is almost the same for all the compounds with the exception of oxotremorine. Muscarone was the most potent compound in all the tissues. Intergroup comparisons in each preparation and the evaluation of the equieffective molar ratios relative to muscarone revealed that carbachol possesses a certain degree of cardioselectivity and oxathiolane, on the other hand, is much less active on the cardiac tissue than on the others. Oxotremorine is a peculiar compound endowed with cardioselectivity.