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Comparison of relaxation responses of vascular and non-vascular smooth muscle to endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF), acidified sodium nitrite (NO) and sodium nitroprusside

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Summary

Smooth muscle relaxant activity of endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF) released from columns of cultured bovine endothelial cells by bradykinin (0>1 — 3 nmol/l) was measured in four non-vascular preparations: guinea-pig taenia caeci, guinea-pig trachea, rat stomach (fundus) and rat anococcygeus. Each preparation was contracted to a steady level of force with a variety of agonists such that they relaxed optimally to sodium nitroprusside (SNP). The EDRF-induced relaxations in each preparation were compared with those obtained in de-endothelialized ring preparations of greyhound coronary artery by means of paired bioassays run in parallel. EDRF released from the endothelial cell columns caused 80–100% relaxation of the coronary artery, 40–80% in the guinea-pig taenia caeci, 50–70% in the rat anococcygeus, 5–8% in the guinea-pig trachea and was undetectable in the rat stomach strip. By comparison, SNP caused maximal relaxation in all tissues compared with the coronary artery.

In separate organ bath experiments the sensitivity to nitric oxide (NO: generated by adding acidified solutions of NaNO2) and SNP was compared in each preparation. SNP caused maximal relaxation in all tissues with the following order of potency: dog coronary artery > guinea-pig trachea > guinea-pig taenia = rat anococcygeus > rat stomach strip. In contrast, the concentration of acidified NaNO2 (NO, 300 nmol/l) that caused 96 ± 4% relaxation in the dog coronary artery caused 84 ± 7% and 48 ± 1 % relaxation in the taenia and anococcygeus respectively. No response attributable to NO was detected in either the trachea or rat stomach strip.

In conclusion, EDRF relaxed both vascular and certain non-vascular smooth muscles with the same order of potency and magnitude as NO generated from acidified solutions of NaNO2. This correlation provides further evidence that NO and EDRF are similar, if not identical.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Baker Medical Research Institute, Commercial Road, PO Box 348, Prahran, 3181, Victoria, Australia

    T. M. Cocks & J. A. Angus

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  1. T. M. Cocks
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  2. J. A. Angus
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Cocks, T.M., Angus, J.A. Comparison of relaxation responses of vascular and non-vascular smooth muscle to endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF), acidified sodium nitrite (NO) and sodium nitroprusside. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Arch Pharmacol 341, 364–372 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00180663

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00180663

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