THE EFFECT OF EPINEPHRINE ON INTRACELLULAR ACID-BASE METABOLISM OF RAT SKELETAL MUSCLE

¹ Department of Pharmacology, University of Utah College of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah

The effect of epinephrine on rat skeletal muscle intracellular acid-base metabolism was studied by two independent methods of determining cell pH. A 30-minute i.v. infusion of epinephrine (2 µg/kg/min) was sufficient to cause a substantial extracellular metabolic acidosis, although this dose level had no effect on muscle intracellular acid-base parameters. No ready explanation for these observations is available at present. It thus appears that epinephrine cannot produce its other effects on skeletal muscle by a mechanism affecting either intracellular pH or bicarbonate concentration.