Racial differences in epinephrine and beta 2-adrenergic receptors.

This study examined the effects of ethnicity and hypertension on beta 2-adrenergic receptors and on plasma catecholamines in a group of 77 unmedicated mildly hypertensive and normotensive men. Black hypertensive subjects had the most sensitive and white hypertensive subjects the least sensitive beta-receptors (as assessed by isoproterenol-stimulated cyclic AMP in lymphocytes [P = .02]).