Over decades, anesthesiologists have used intravenous adenosine as mainstay therapy for
diagnosing or treating supraventricular tachycardia in the perioperative setting. More
recently, specific adenosine receptor therapeutics or gene-targeted mice deficient in
extracellular adenosine production or individual adenosine receptors became available.
These models enabled physicians and scientists to learn more about the biologic functions
of extracellular nucleotide metabolism and adenosine signaling. Such functions include …