Cooling is a potent vasodilator of deep vessels in the rat.

The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of cooling on smooth muscle tone of the pulmonary artery and aorta and to clarify the basic mechanism of these responses. We recorded isometric tension in smooth muscle strips of rat pulmonary artery and aorta in organ baths during stepwise cooling. Cooling responses were tested before and after the addition of various standard agents that interfere with known neurogenic (autonomic blockers, tetrodotoxin) and myogenic mechanisms (calcium channel blockers) of relaxation. We also examined the hypothesis of the presence of a cooling-released substance. Stepwise cooling (37degrees C to 4 degrees C) of aortic smooth muscle induced reproducible graded relaxations that were inversely proportional to temperature. Cooling-induced relaxation was not dependent on a neural mechanism nor the release of neurotransmitters or a cooling-released substance such as NO or CO. Cooling of pulmonary arterial and aortic smooth muscle preparations induced a graded myogenic relaxation inversely proportional to the cooling temperature. The mechanism is not dependent on local nervous or known mediators but related to a direct physico-chemical effect of cooling.