The effect of centrophenoxine at the skeletal neuromuscular junction

Centrophenoxine exhibited some interesting actions at the neuromuscular junction. The drug was ineffective in rat or chick preparations, but blocked neuromuscular transmission in frog preparations. The blockade was reversed by adrenaline, potassium, choline and physostigmine. The drug had no effect on muscle contractility or endplate cholinoceptor. Hemicholinium 3 induced a neuromuscular blockade in rat (in vivo) which was reversed by choline but not by centrophenoxine. Neither of these two drugs could reverse the blocking effect of hemicholinium in frog preparations. It is concluded that centrophenoxine acts only in frog and the blockade involves a presynaptic mechanism. The work further suggests that choline uptake systems in the rat and the frog may not be identical, since choline competed with hemicholinium for the uptake system in rat and with centrophenoxine (but not with hemicholinium) in the frog.