Abstract
The effects of an irreversible or a reversible $\alpha_1$-adrenoceptor antagonist (dibenamine or prazosin) on $\alpha_1$-adrenoceptor-mediated vasoconstrictions were studied in the endothelium-denuded rat aorta. In these experiments, the mobilization of intracelluier calcium and translocation of extracellular calcium were also studied. To exclude the modulation of endothelium releasing EDRF and EDCF, the endothelium was removed in all rat aortas. Contraction induced by phenylephrine (a full $\alpha_1$-adrenoceptor agonist) was separated into a fast phasic component of the response due to the release of intracellular calcium and a slow tonic one due to the influx of extracellular calcium. Pretreatments with increasing doses of reversible $\alpha_1$-adrenoceptor antagonist prazosin, as well as irreversible $\alpha_1$-adrenoceptor antagonist dibenamine, inhibited the phasic component of phenylephrine-induced contraction more effectively than the tonic one. Pretreatment of dibenamine (0.2 $\mu{M}$) or prazosin (10 nM) to the rat aorta abolished phasic response but remained tonic one about 41% and 51%, respectively. These results suggest that as the efficiency of phenylephrine was progressively reduced by pretreatments with increasing doses of an irreversible or a reversible $\alpha_1$-adrenoceptor antagonist (dibenamine or prazosin), the contraction induced by phenylephrine became progressively more dependent on the influx of extracellular calcium.
