Effects of {alpha}-adrenergic stimulation on the sarcolemmal Na+/Ca2+-exchanger in adult rat ventricular cardiocytes

Objective: The cardiac sarcolemmal Na+/Ca2+-exchanger (NCX) plays an important role in the maintenance of the myocardial Ca2+ homeostasis which is altered in cardiac hypertrophy and failure. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether α-adrenergic stimulation known to induce cardiac hypertrophy might be involved in the regulation of the sarcolemmal NCX. Methods: Adult rat ventricular cardiocytes (ARC) were isolated from male Sprague–Dawley rats. Phenylephrine, an α-adrenergic agonist, was used as hypertrophic agent. NCX expression was measured by competitive RT-PCR and Western blot analysis. Results: α-Adrenergic stimulation of ARC with 10 μM phenylephrine for 24 h resulted in a significant increase of the NCX mRNA (2.5-fold) and the NCX protein level (1.8-fold). The changes on the expression level were blocked by the α<inf>1</inf>-adrenoceptor antagonist prazosin. Conclusions: The data demonstrate that the NCX expression level is up-regulated by the activation of the α-adrenergic signal transduction pathway. The increased NCX mRNA level induced by α-adrenergic stimulation appeared to be translated into an increased NCX protein level.