Effect of cisapride, a serotonin-4 receptor agonist, on aldosterone secretion: absence of age-related change

Twenty healthy volunteers (age ranging from 19 to 72) were studied for their aldosterone response to oral administration of 10 mg cisapride, a serotonin-4 receptor agonist. The participants were studied after minimum of 4-hour ambulation (high basal renin) and a repeated test after overnight bed rest (low basal renin). Oral administration of cisapride caused a two-fold increase in the plasma aldosterone levels (182.6 +/- 28.0% in high renin state and 203.4 +/- 38.6% in low renin state; P = 0.659 between the means of two states) without affecting the plasma renin levels, Scatterplot of percentile aldosterone increment against age distribution demonstrated that the R-square were very low (0.039 for high renin and 0.009 for low renin state). Our data suggest that the age does not alter the serotonergic mediated effect on aldosterone secretion. The cisapride effect is also independent of the different basal renin states. Cisapride, as a single oral dose, could serve as a simple test to assess the functional capacity of aldosterone secretion.