Catecholamine as an Inducer of Hyperuricemia

Abstract

Possible role of catecholamine in a pathogenesis of hyperuricemia was studied in rats and chickens. Although elevation of plasma purine catabolites induced by catecholamine was acute and transient, the action of catecholamine should be taken into consideration for the cause of hyperuricemia. Actually, catecholamine caused prolonged elevation of plasma purine catabolites in rats under severe excretory disturbance by ligating ureters. However, no prolongation of the effect was observed in the animals with lighter degree of excretory disorders. A high correlation between the concentrations of serum uric acid and serum creatinine in hyperuricemic sportsmen has been reported recently. In our experiments in rats, beta adrenoceptor agonists reduced myocardial high-energy phosphate compounds, resulting in highly correlated increases of plasma purine catabolites and plasma creatinine. The rats received stress by fixing showed marked increase of plasma purine catabolites. The increase was inhibited by the pretreatment of sedatives and reserpine, and was partially blocked by adrenoceptor antagonists.These results supported that the increase of plasma purine catabolites might be caused by endogenous catecholamine released by the stress. Successive administrations of catecholamine failed to maintain higher concentration of plasma purine catabolites. However, the effect of beta adrenoceptor agonists on plasma purine catabolites was obviously potentiated by the pretreatment with aminophylline or 11-deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA) in rats. Such a potentiation was also observed in chickens, resulting in an abnormally high concentration of plasma uric acid. The chickens received catecholamine together with DOCA under salt-loading showed a remarkable hyperuricemia subjecting to deposition of uric acid in and/or around their organs and tissues. From the results described above, it could be concluded that catecholamine should play a significant role in the induction of hyperuricemia under the specific conditions.