Cardiovascular effects of prazosin in normotensive and genetically hypertensive rats

Abstract

SUMMARY: 1. The cardiovascular effects of prazosin, a new antihypertensive drug, were studied in normotensive and genetically hypertensive rats.2. Prazosin, infused intra‐arterially, lowered vascular resistance in the blood‐perfused rat hind limb. This effect was dependent on the presence of intact sympathetic innervation to the limb; no direct vasodilatation was demonstrated. In this preparation prazosin infusion reduced vasoconstrictor responses to nor‐adrenaline.3. In the saline‐perfused rat mesenteric artery preparation prazosin reduced responses to noradrenaline and sympathetic nerve stimulation but not those to serotonin and vasopressin. Prazosin was more potent than phentolamine, on a molar basis, in reducing the vasoconstrictor effects of noradrenaline.4. A comparison of the effects of prazosin injected intravenously and into a lateral cerebral ventricle failed to show any central action of the drug on blood pressure. Experiments using the donor blood‐perfused, vascularly isolated rat hind limb preparation confirmed that the sympatholytic effect of prazosin occurred within the limb itself.