SUMMARY1. The smooth muscle of guinea-pig taenia coli was used to investigate the relation between metabolic and physiological effects of adrenaline. Electrical and mechanical activity was recorded with the sucrose gap technique and, in parallel experiments, the concentration of energy-rich phosphate compounds, adenosinetriphosphate and creatine phosphate, (ATP and CP) in the tissue was determined.2. Adrenaline (in concentrations from 2 x 10-9 g/ml. to 5 x 108 g/ml.) increased the tissue content of energy-rich phosphate compounds. This effect was coincident with the physiological, inhibitory effect on electrical and mechanical activity.3. After anaerobic exposure of the tissue to substrate-free medium, the biochemical and the physiological effects ofadrenaline were both abolished; both recovered after readmission of oxygen and/or substrate.4. In muscles depleted of glycogen in substrate-free medium, either by anoxia or by high temperature, adrenaline produced its stabilizing effect on the cell membrane and the increase in ATP and CP content when ,6-hydroxybutyrate was the substrate, i.e. in the complete absence of carbohydrate from the medium and from the tissue.5. When adrenaline was applied simultaneously with the readmission of substrate, the ATP and OP content of pieces treated with adrenaline was greater than of control pieces, though the tension of both was zero. This indicates that the effect was not secondary to the muscle relaxation but was the result of increased ATP synthesis.6. The physiological and biochemical effects of adrenaline were both abolished by the same concentration of imidazole (0.05 M).E. BUEDING AND OTHERS 7. Low concentrations of ATP (1 x 106-5 x10-6M)-like adrenalineinhibited electrical and mechanical activity of the taenia. This effect was also abolished by imidazole.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.