Antihypertensive effect of betaxolol, a cardioselective beta-adrenoceptor antagonist, in renal hypertensive dogs

The antihypertensive effect of betaxolol, a highly selective beta 1-adrenoceptor antagonist, was investigated in renal hypertensive dogs, and the mechanism was also studied. A single oral administration of betaxolol (1 and 10 mg/kg) lowered blood pressure dose-dependently. The hypotensive effect of betaxolol was enhanced by daily oral administration for 10 days. In anesthetized dogs, intraarterial injection of betaxolol produced a dose-dependent increase in femoral artery flow; and in this test, betaxolol was 3 times less potent than papaverine. The increase in blood flow with betaxolol was not affected by pretreatment with propranolol. These findings indicate that a certain vasodilating activity may contribute to the antihypertensive mechanism of betaxolol.