“…However, it has recently been shown that the kinetics of agonist and antagonist binding are different (Weiland, Minneman & Molinoff, 1979;1980) and the possibility that the supersensitivity may be the result of an increase in affinity of agonists only, must be considered. With the availability of a 3-adrenoceptor antagonist, Ro 03-7894 (1-(5-chloracetylaminobenzfuran-2-yl)-2-isopropylaminoethanol), which has been shown to behave in an apparently irreversible manner (Nicholson & Broadley, 1978;Nicholson, Broadley, Burden & Natoff, 1979;Rankin & Broadley, 1982), it has been possible to determine pharmacologically the affinities of sympathomimetic amines for cardiac f-adrenoceptors (Broadley & Nicholson, 1981;Siegl & McNeill, 1982). In the present study, the affinities of isoprenaline and orciprenaline were determined as their dissociation constants, in three cardiac preparations of the guineapig, to assess whether changes occur during hypothermia-induced supersensitivity.…”