Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibition and the norepinephrine spillover response to dynamic exercise. Leuenberger, Urs, Lawrence Gaul, Howard Noack, Steven Gubin, Robert Zelis. Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine and the Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine
APStracts 3:0227A, 1996.
To determine if prejunctional angiotensin II receptors facilitate norepinephrine (NE) release during exercise, normal volunteers exercised at 25% or 65% of VO2max on two occasions. Steady state NE kinetics were determined at rest and during exercise using infusions of [3H]NE. Arterial plasma NE and [3H]NE were determined for calculation of NE spillover and clearance. Before the second bout of exercise at 25% VO2max later that day, enalaprilat (n=8) or nitroprusside (n=5) were administered intravenously to lower blood pressure to a comparable level, and saline was infused as a time control (n=4). Exercise at 25% of VO2max increased heart rate form 73 to 110 beats/min, plasma NE from 296 to 626 pg/ml and NE spillover from 1.56 to 3.32 nmol.min-1.[mu]-2. The exercise effect was significant in each subgroup. At rest and during exercise the decrease in blood pressure and the increase in plasma NE and NE spillover were similar with enalaprilat and nitroprusside. There was no drug effect in the saline group. In a separate group (n=7), exercise at 65% of VO2max increased heart rate from 76 to 170 beats/min, plasma NE from 338 to 2656 pg/ml and NE spillover from 1.87 to 11.65 nmol.min-1.[mu]-2. In this group, 3 days of oral enalapril did not affect the NE spillover response to exercise. Because the angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor did not attenuate the NE spillover response to exercise, we conclude that at the exercise levels tested, prejunctional angiotensin II receptors do not appear to facilitate NE release.

Received 12 October 1995; accepted in final form 5 April 1996.
APS Manuscript Number A1104-5.
Article publication pending Journal of Applied Physiology.
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 8 May 96