Suitability of the old fowl rectal caecum preparation for investigating the selectivity of β-adrenergic drugs

We tested alpha- and beta-adrenergic drugs on isolated strips of fowl rectal caecum from 14- to 16-week-old Warren hens. Basal tone and spontaneous motility were dose-dependently reduced by isoprenaline and all the selective beta-agonists tested (except xamoterol) with the following order of potency: isoprenaline=fenoterol=procaterol=clenbuterol>dobutamine> SR58611A. The results indicate that this tissue preparation consists almost entirely of beta2-adrenoceptors. This preparation may, therefore, be considered a suitable assay for discriminating beta1- from beta2-agonists according to their selectivity.