In a dog model of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) created by aortic valve plication, we examined the hypothesis that regional myocardial inotropic and metabolic responses to alpha-adrenergic stimulation would be diminished due to decreased alpha-adrenoceptor number. After systemic beta-adrenergic blockade, phenylephrine (PE, 5 micrograms.kg-1.min-1) was infused into the left anterior descending artery in eight LVH and nine control open-chest anesthetized dogs. The circumflex region served as control. In both regions, local segment work was calculated as the integrated products of force (miniature transducer) and segment shortening (ultrasonic crystals). Local myocardial O2 consumption was calculated from regional blood flow (microspheres) and O2 saturation (microspectrophotometry). A saturation radioligand binding assay was used to determine adrenoceptor number and affinity. In control animals in the treated region, PE increased work from 815 +/- 140 to 1,493 +/- 149 g.mm.min-1. In LVH, work was not significantly altered (688 +/- 142 vs. 730 +/- 149 g.mm.min-1). Regional blood flow was elevated in controls (81 +/- 10 to 141 +/- 24 ml.min-1.100 g-1) but was not changed in LVH (105 +/- 12 vs. 123 +/- 18 ml.min-1.100 g-1). In controls, but not in LVH, myocardial O2 consumption was almost doubled during PE infusion (6.2 +/- 0.9 vs. 12.0 +/- 2.1 ml O2.min-1.100 g-1). alpha-Adrenoceptor number and dissociation constants values were not different between control and LVH (15.7 +/- 2.8 vs. 16.4 +/- 2.7 fmol/mg protein; 13.2 +/- 3.4 vs. 16.9 +/- 4.3 nm, respectively).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)