Norepinephrine infusion with and without alpha-adrenergic blockade by phentolamine increases salivary alpha amylase in healthy men

Kuebler, Ulrike; von Känel, Roland; Heimgartner, Nadja; Zuccarella-Hackl, Claudia; Stirnimann, Guido; Ehlert, Ulrike; Wirtz, Petra H. (2014). Norepinephrine infusion with and without alpha-adrenergic blockade by phentolamine increases salivary alpha amylase in healthy men. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 49(November), pp. 290-298. Elsevier 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2014.07.023

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BACKGROUND:
Mental stress reliably induces increases in salivary alpha amylase (sAA), a suggested surrogate marker for sympathetic nervous system (SNS) reactivity. While stress-induced sAA increases correlate with norepinephrine (NE) secretion, a potential mediating role of noradrenergic mechanisms remains unclear. In this study, we investigated for the first time in humans whether a NE-stress-reactivity mimicking NE-infusion with and without alpha-adrenergic blockade by phentolamine would induce changes in sAA.

METHODS:
In a single-blind placebo-controlled within-subjects design, 21 healthy men (29-66 years) took part in three different experimental trials varying in terms of substance infusion with a 1-min first infusion followed by a 15-min second infusion: saline-infusion (trial-1), NE-infusion (5 μg/min) without alpha-adrenergic blockade (trial-2), and with phentolamine-induced non-selective blockade of alpha1- and alpha2-adrenergic receptors (trial-3). Saliva samples were collected immediately before, during, and several times after substance infusion in addition to blood pressure and heart rate readings.

RESULTS:
Experimental trials significantly differed in sAA reactivity to substance-infusion (p=.001) with higher sAA reactivity following NE-infusion with (trial-3; p=.001) and without alpha-adrenergic-blockade (trial-2; p=.004) as compared to placebo-infusion (trial-1); sAA infusion reactivity did not differ between trial-2 and trial-3 (p=.29). Effective phentolamine application was verified by blood pressure and heart rate infusion reactivity. Salivary cortisol was not affected by NE, either with or without alpha-adrenergic-blockade.

CONCLUSIONS:
We found that NE-infusion stimulates sAA secretion, regardless of co-administered non-selective alpha-adrenergic blockade by phentolamine, suggesting that the mechanism underlying stress-induced sAA increases may involve NE.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > Pre-clinic Human Medicine > BioMedical Research (DBMR) > DBMR Forschung Mu35 > Forschungsgruppe Hepatologie
04 Faculty of Medicine > Pre-clinic Human Medicine > BioMedical Research (DBMR) > DBMR Forschung Mu35 > Forschungsgruppe Hepatologie

07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology > Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy
04 Faculty of Medicine > Pre-clinic Human Medicine > BioMedical Research (DBMR) > Forschungsbereich Mu50 > Forschungsgruppe Psychosomatik

UniBE Contributor:

von Känel, Roland, Hackl, Claudia, Stirnimann, Guido, Wirtz, Petra Hedwig

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

ISSN:

0306-4530

Publisher:

Elsevier

Language:

English

Submitter:

Lilian Karin Smith-Wirth

Date Deposited:

14 Apr 2015 15:26

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:45

Publisher DOI:

10.1016/j.psyneuen.2014.07.023

PubMed ID:

25128931

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Alpha amylase, Saliva, Norepinephrine infusion, Alpha-adrenergic blocker, Phentolamine, Human, Stress, Cortisol

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.66947

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/66947

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