ABSTRACT
Two different kinds of experimental design are commonly used in pharmacological experiments: a single-curve design or a multiple (usually two)- curve design. The latter design is usually considered favorable, as it allows comparisons of E/[ A] curves to be made that are uncomplicated by intertissue differences. Such an experimental design is often possible in isolated tissue systems, thereby allowing each piece of tissue to provide an agonist (or antagonist) affinity and efficacy estimate. However, in many other assay systems (cell based and isolated tissues) a multiple-curve design is not feasible. In this situation, a single piece of tissue (or cuvette of cells, etc.) provides only part of the information required to analyze an agonist (or antagonist). Estimation of the parameters of interest therefore necessitates combining data obtained in different pieces of tissue. This makes for a less straightforward statistical treatment of the data than that used in the multiple-curve design (see Ref. 14 for details). For this reason, where possible, the experimenter should adopt a multiple-curve design.
