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Objective: In heart failure, homologous downregulation of β-adrenoceptors contributes to impaired adrenergic responsiveness of the myocardium. We evaluated α1,-adrenoceptors (α1-AR) in a sparsely innervated and a densely innervated peripheral artery in an experimental model of left ventricular dysfunction post-myocardial infarction. Methods: [3H]Prazosin binding was determined in arterial segments of Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY), and of Wistar rats 5 weeks after myocardial infarction (MI) or sham operation (SHAM). Results: In the thoracic aorta (TAO) of WKY, specific prazosin binding was: (i) prevented by the irreversible α1B-AR and relatively selective α1D-AR antagonist, chloroethylclonidine (CEC); (ii) displaced with low affinity (pKi 6.25) by the α1A-AR selective ligand, (+)-niguldipine; and (iii) displaced with both high (pKi 10.4) and low (pKi 7.37) affinity by the α1D-AR antagonist, BMY 7378. In mesenteric small arteries (MSA) of WKY, prazosin binding was: (i) reduced 50% by CEC; (ii) displaced in a biphasic fashion by (+)-niguldipine (pKi 8.60 and pKi 6.22); and (iii) displaced by BMY 7378 with low affinity only (pKi 6.86). Also in TAO of SHAM, prazosin binding was prevented by CEC, but neither 30 nM (+)-niguldipine nor 1 nM BMY 7378 affected it. In MSA of SHAM, prazosin binding was virtually abolished in the presence of 30 nM (+)-niguldipine and was not reduced by 1 nM BMY 7378. In TAO and MSA of MI, compared to SHAM, the density of binding sites tended to be increased rather than decreased and neither the affinity for the ligand nor the effects of α1-AR subtype selective tools were significantly modified. Conclusions: These findings indicate that: (i) radioligand binding can be applied in intact arterial segments to quantify and characterize α1-AR; (ii) although differences seem to exist between rat strains, α1B-AR and α1D-AR predominate in rat thoracic aorta and α1A-AR and α1B-AR in mesenteric small arteries; and (iii) α1-AR density is not reduced in the poorly innervated aorta and the densely innervated mesenteric small arteries of rats with heart failure due to myocardial infarction.

We compared the distribution of DNA synthesis over the arterial tree of young normotensive Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) with marginally elevated blood pressure. Six-week-old male SHR and WKY rats were therefore infused with 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdUrd) for 2 days and the nuclear incorporation of the thymidine analogue in the media of various arteries was determined by immunohistochemistry. In WKY rats, 2.5 of the arterial smooth muscle nuclei in elastic, muscular and resistance arteries incorporated BrdUrd. In SHR, DNA synthesis was more marked in large arteries than in resistance arteries. It was in addition significantly larger in the aorta, superior mesenteric, renal and femoral arteries of the SHR than in those of the WKY rats. However, nuclear incorporation of BrdUrd in vivo did not differ between SHR and WKY rats in aortic endothelium, carotid arterial smooth muscle, nor in mesenteric or renal resistance arteries. Between 6 and 20 weeks of age, the number of nuclear profiles per media cross-section did not increase in large arteries of WKY rats and SHR. During this period of time, however, carotid artery and thoracic aorta weight and DNA content increased. SHR large arteries gained more DNA than those of WKY rats. These data indicate that DNA synthesis is uniformly distributed over the arterial system in young WKY rats and that DNA synthesis is elevated in the smooth muscle of large arteries of 6-week-old SHR but not in their resistance arteries.