responsiveness is downregulated in left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy induced by chronic hypertension. While exercise training in hypertension enhances -AR responsiveness, the role of adenylyl cyclase remains unclear. The purpose of the present study was to test whether treadmill running in the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) model improves LV responsiveness to forskolin (FOR) or the combination of FOR ϩ isoproterenol (FORϩISO). Female SHR (16-wk) were randomly placed into sedentary (SHR-SED; n ϭ 7) or treadmill-trained (SHR-TRD; n ϭ 8) groups. Wistar-Kyoto (WKY; n ϭ 7) animals acted as normotensive controls. Langendorff, isovolumic LV performance was established at baseline and during incremental FOR infusion (1 and 5 mol/l) and FORϩISO (5 mol/l ϩ 1ϫ10 Ϫ8 mol/l). Heart rate, systolic blood pressure, and heart-to-body weight ratio were lower in WKY relative to both SHR groups (P Ͻ 0.05). LV performance and heart rate significantly increased in all groups to a similar extent with incremental FOR infusion. However, in the presence of 5 mol/l FOR, ISO increased LV developed pressure, positive change in LV pressure, and negative change in LV pressure to a greater extent in SHR-TRD relative to SHR-SED (P Ͻ 0.05). Phospholamban phosphorylation at the Thr 17 was greater in SHR-TRD relative to SHR-SED and WKY (P Ͻ 0.05). Absolute LV developed pressure was moderately correlated with phospholamban phosphorylation at both the Ser 16 (r ϭ 0.64; P Ͻ 0.05) and Thr 17 (r ϭ 0.52; P Ͻ 0.05). Our data suggest that the adenylyl cyclase step in the -AR cascade is not downregulated in the early course of hypertension and that the enhanced -AR responsiveness with training is likely mediated at levels other than adenylyl cyclase. Our data also suggest that -AR inotropic responsiveness in the presence of direct adenylyl cyclase agonism is improved in trained compared with sedentary SHR hearts.heart; hypertrophy; diastole; proteins; spontaneously hypertensive rat THE -ADRENERGIC RECEPTOR (-AR) system is an integral pathway in regulating myocardial inotropy and lusitropy, particularly during the stress of exercise (43,46,51). With hypertension, however, the -AR system is downregulated via receptor uncoupling (10, 27) and is clearly one hallmark of the maladaptive phenotype associated with compensatory hypertrophy (50). Recent data from our laboratory have shown that exercise training improves -AR responsiveness in the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) model by mitigating the left ventricular (LV) abundance of the -AR receptor desensitizing kinase, G protein receptor kinase 2 (GRK2) (27). As a result of "restored" -AR signaling, PKA-mediated phosphorylation of key sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca 2ϩ handling proteins, such as the ryanodine receptor and phospholamban (PLB), were improved with training (27). However, given that direct adenylyl cyclase/cAMP signaling may also be altered with hypertension (9, 28, 31), it remains unclear from our previous work whether "downstream-associated" -AR mechanisms are likewise improved...