Lack of cardiac alpha 1-adrenoceptor involvement in ethanol-induced cardiac hypertrophy

The development of cardiac hypertrophy was examined in rats given ethanol in a nutritionally adequate, liquid diet mixture, by intubation, in severely intoxicating doses at 8-h intervals for up to 96 h, alone or in combination with prazosin. Other groups of rats received isocalorically paired quantities of maltose-dextrin. Adrenal glands of rats receiving ethanol were larger than those from control animals. Prazosin did not affect this measure. In contrast, concurrent treatment with prazosin enhanced the loss of medullary catecholamines and noradrenaline from hearts of rats given ethanol, while it had no such effects in controls. Reflecting these changes, excreted quantities of catecholamines were markedly increased in rats given ethanol and prazosin. Hearts of animals given the combined treatment of ethanol and prazosin showed cardiomegaly at 24 h, when there was an increase of about 20% in proportional heart weight, an increase that persisted through the remaining 3 days of the study. At 48 h, hearts of animals given prazosin and ethanol were heavier than those given ethanol alone. A significant correlation between catecholamine excretion and the development of cardiac hypertrophy was identified. The results of the study show that prazosin can enhance effects of ethanol on the peripheral sympathetic nervous system. Moreover, the results suggest that postsynaptic alpha 1-adrenoceptor stimulation in the heart is not an important contributor to ethanol-induced cardiomegaly.