Influence of age on circadian rhythms of adrenoceptors in brain cortex, heart and submandibular glands of BALB/c mice: when circadian studies are not only useful but necessary

In the present paper we study circadian rhythm variation of alpha1-adrenoceptors (alpha(1)ARs) and beta-adrenoceptors (betaARs) characteristics during aging. Experiments have been performed on mice's whole brain cortex, heart and submandibular glands, which have physiologically relevant regulatory functions at different ages. We used 36 young (4 months) and 36 old (26 months) mice; six animals from each group were sacrificed every 4 h, starting at 8.00 a.m. Both the alpha(1)ARs and betaARs density in heart and brain and the betaARs of submandibular glands are significantly lower in old mice with respect to the young ones. The difference, however, if the comparison is performed only at a particular time, for example 8.00 a.m., is not always significant. The alpha(1)ARs density in submandibular glands does not show significant difference with aging, but opposite phases are observed. This study demonstrates that in dynamical systems such as receptors, single point analysis is not so suitable for a correct estimate of adrenoceptors density variation between young and old mice. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.