Diethylstilbestrol on urinary catecholamines and on food intake in castrated male rats.

Moderate changes in food intake produced by diethylstilbestrol in rats were not well correlated with changes in urinary norepinephrine, vanillylmandelic acid or epinephrine. Apparently moderate dietary restrictions are not capable of decreasing adrenergic activity, and the decreased urinary norepinephrine produced by diethylstilbestrol is not associated with decreased availability of dietary precursors.

Contrasting effects of diethylstilbestrol and estradiol on contraction of isolated rat aorta.

Diethylstilbestrol (DES, 1 X 10(-6) M) inhibited norepinephrine (NE)-induced contractions of isolated rat aortic strips only at low doses of NE in contrast to estradiol-17 beta (1 X 10(-5) M) which depressed only the response to high doses. The degree of inhibition increased over a period of 90 min exposure to the estrogens. Microsomes accumulated process appears to be gradual requiring many minutes which may explain the gradual increase in intensity of the inhibitory effect with increased time of exposure to DES. The contrasting inhibitory effects of DES and estradiol in rat aorta may be due to non-homogeneous solution of these drugs in smooth muscle plasma membranes. DES, but not estradiol, caused contraction of isolated aortic strips prior to the onset of inhibition. This contraction showed fade and tachyphylaxis, was antagonized by alpha-adrenergic blockers, and was enhanced by prior treatment of the strips with NE. Thus, DES but not estradiol is capable of mobilizing NE from storage sites in rat aorta.