Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, Vol 53, Issue 1 B33-B41, Copyright © 1998 by The Gerontological Society of America
Effect of age, gender, rat strain, and dietary restriction, on norepinephrine release from cardiac synaptosomes
DL Snyder, PA Gayheart-Walsten, S Rhie, W Wang and J Roberts
Department of Pharmacology, Allegheny University of the Health Sciences, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. [email protected]
The purpose of the present study was to determine if dietary restriction
affected NE release from cardiac synaptosomes obtained from old male F344
rats. Female F344 rats and male and female B/N rats were also examined to
determine if age-related changes in norepinephrine (NE) release capacity in
the heart are strain- and/or gender-specific. F344 and Brown-Norway (B/N)
rats were examined at 6, 12, and 24 months; B/N rats were also examined at
28-30 months. K(+)-induced NE release significantly declined with age in
male F344 and B/N rats; this decline was attenuated in female rats and in
dietary restricted rats, especially at 24 months. The present study
demonstrates that aging reduces the capacity of cardiac adrenergic nerve
terminals to release NE, this age-related change is not strain specific,
and that dietary restriction and gender alter the extent of this change
with age.
