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Research article1998Peer reviewed

A comparison between clenbuterol, salbutamol and terbutaline in relation to receptor binding and in vitro relaxation of equine tracheal muscle

Torneke, K; Larsson, CI; Appelgren, LE

Abstract

Beta(2)-adrenoceptor agonists are used as bronchodilators in both humans and horses. Of these drugs, clenbuterol is the one most frequently used when treating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the horse, while salbutamol and terbutaline are used in the treatment of human asthma, Little is known of the properties of the latter two drugs in equine medicine.We have compared salbutamol and terbutaline with clenbuterol in relation to their ability to relax muscle strips from equine tracheal muscle, precontracted with 40 nM carbachol, in tissue chambers, The affinities of these drugs to the beta(2)-adrenoceptors in homogenates of the same muscle tissue were also examined. These experiments were performed with radioligand binding studies using the very potent beta-adrenoceptor antagonist I-125-cyanopindolol.The three drugs were almost equipotent in relaxing the muscle strips. The EC50-values for salbutamol, terbutaline and clenbuterol were 5.6, 13.8 and 2.1 nM, respectively, and all three drugs relaxed the preparations completely. In the competitive binding study, however, the K-d-value of clenbuterol was much lower (24 nM) than that of salbutamol and terbutaline (1100 nM and 3900 nM, respectively). The amount of receptors bound at the EC50-value of clenbuterol was 8% compared to less than 1% for salbutamol and terbutaline. This indicates a lower intrinsic efficacy of clenbuterol than of the other two drugs. The beta-adrenoceptor density was 45 +/- 14.3 fmol/mg protein (mean +/- SD) and the K-d-value of I-125-cyanopindolol was 11.4 +/- 3.3 pM.

Published in

Journal of Veterinary Pharmacology and Therapeutics
1998, Volume: 21, number: 5, pages: 388-392
Publisher: BLACKWELL SCIENCE LTD

      SLU Authors

    • Törneke, Karolina

      • Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

      • Appelgren, Lars-Erik

        • Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

        • Ingvast Larsson, Carina

          • Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

        UKÄ Subject classification

        Pathobiology

        Publication identifier

        DOI: https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2885.1998.00156.x

        Permanent link to this page (URI)

        https://res.slu.se/id/publ/97418