Mediation of Renin Release in Essential Hypertension by α-Adrenoreceptors

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Abstract
We studied the role of α-adrenoceptors in controlling renin release by infusing increasing doses of phentolamine into six patients with essential hypertension. Furthermore, in order to evaluate the relative importance of α1-and α2-adrenoceptors, phentolamine infusion was repeated in the same patients after pretreatment with prazosin, a selective α1-blocking agent, and oxprenolol, a nonselective β-blocker. After placebo, phentolamine infusion did not change mean blood pressure or heart rate and increased plasma renin activity (PRA) in a dose-dependent fashion. This finding suggests that the drug acts directly on the intrarenal renin producing apparatus and seems to confirm the inhibitory role of α-adrenoceptors in the control of renin release. After prazosin and oxprenolol pretreatment, PRA was respectively increased and decreased but it was unmodified by phentolamine infusion. This latter finding may indicate that both α1- and α2-adrenoceptors are involved in renin release or that α-adrenoceptors cannot be clearly differentiated into α1- and α2-subtypes.

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