Discontinuous density sucrose gradient centrifugation was used to isolate membrane vesicles from the left ventricle of three normal subjects (one prospective organ donor and two traffic victims whose hearts were obtained 1 hour after death) and nine patients undergoing cardiac transplantation as a consequence of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. Sarcolemma-enriched subcellular fractions, detected in the interface between 8.55% and 25% sucrose, were identified by the increased activity of Na+,K+-ATPase and by enrichment in beta-adrenergic receptor density. The density of beta-adrenergic receptors was lower in vesicles from diseased hearts (610 +/- 71 fmol/mg protein) than in vesicles from normal hearts (1,410 +/- 226 fmol/mg protein; p less than 0.01). alpha 1-Adrenergic receptors were identified in these membrane vesicles by [3H]prazosin binding. Specific binding of [3H]prazosin was about 50% of the total binding at 1 nM, and alpha 1-adrenergic binding sites were saturable at approximately 3 nM. Scatchard analysis revealed 58 +/- 5 fmol/mg protein (KD = 0.90 +/- 0.08 nM) in pathological hearts and 30 +/- 5 fmol/mg protein (KD = 0.90 +/- 0.03 nM) in normal hearts (p less than 0.01). The displacement curve of (-)-norepinephrine in membrane vesicles from normal hearts delineated one subpopulation of alpha 1-adrenergic receptors; the addition of 0.1 mM GTP did not cause right shift. In membrane vesicles from diseased heart, the displacement curve of (-)-norepinephrine disclosed two subpopulations of alpha 1-adrenergic receptors. A right shift that occurred after addition of GTP showed that in this case alpha 1-adrenergic receptors were functionally coupled with GTP-binding protein.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)