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. 1977 Oct;61(2):183–188. doi: 10.1111/j.1476-5381.1977.tb08403.x

Mechanism of nicotine-induced release of noradrenaline from adrenergic nerve endings

S Jayasundar, MM Vohra
PMCID: PMC1667515  PMID: 922247

Abstract

1 A study of the mechanism of release of [3H]-noradrenaline ([3H]-NA) by nicotine from isolated vas deferens of the rat was made using incubation media of different ionic composition.

2 Nicotine (20 μg/ml)-induced release of [3H]-NA was significantly potentiated in K+-free Krebs solution as compared to that in normal Krebs-Ringer solution.

3 Nicotine-induced release of [3H]-NA was significantly reduced in Na+-deficient Krebs solution (containing only 11 mM Na+) and was abolished in Na+-free Krebs solution.

4 In totally depolarized tissues, nicotine failed to cause an outflow of [3H]-NA but Ca2+ (5 mM) did so.

5 Nicotine required the presence of Ca2+ in the incubation medium to cause release of [3H]-NA from adrenergic nerve terminals, the magnitude of release being dependent upon the concentration of Ca2+.

6 Nicotine-induced release of [3H]-NA was demonstrated in high Ca2+, Na+-free Krebs solution in which all Na+ had been replaced with Ca2+.

7 It is concluded that nicotine increases the membrane permeability to both Na+ and Ca2+. It is also suggested that the increase in permeability to Ca2+ alone is not sufficient but a local depolarizing action of nicotine is necessary to cause release of noradrenaline from adrenergic nerve endings.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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