Influence of the nature of pre-contraction on the responses to commonly employed vasodilator agents in rat-isolated aortic rings.

The relaxing properties of vasodilator drugs in vitro may depend on the characteristics of the contractile state of the vessel investigated. Rat-isolated thoracic aortas were exposed to different types of pre-contraction. The following vasoconstrictor agents were used: phenylephrine (PhE), a selective alpha1-adrenoceptor agonist; St 587, a partial alpha1-adrenoceptor stimulant; U46619 (U-46). a thromboxane A2 agonist: and potassium ions causing receptor-independent depolarization of the membrane. After pre-contraction, various differential vasodilator drugs were investigated: methacholine (MCh, endothelium dependent), sodium nitroprusside (SNP, NO donor), forskolin (FSK, adenylyl cyclase stimulant) and nifedipine, a Ca2+-antagonist (selective L-type calcium antagonist). The vasodilator activity of these compounds was quantified by their vasodilator potency value (pD2) and efficacy (Emax) obtained from their concentration-response curves. PhE (0.1, 0.3, 3 microM) caused isometric responses of 4.8 +/- 0.3, 6.5 +/- 0.3 and 7.8 +/- 0.5 mN, respectively. An increase of the PhE concentration from 0.1 to 3 microM did not influence the response to FSK while it reduced the pD2 of SNP (8.6 +/- 0.1 to 7.35 +/- 0.1). Under these conditions, only the Emax of MCh was reduced (96.3 +/- 4.3% to 43.3 +/- 6.9%). U46 (0.18, 0.3, 1 microM) increased the contractile force by 7.4 +/- 0.4, 8.8 +/- 0.3 and 10.4 +/- 0.3 mN, respectively. Increasing the concentration of U-46 from 0.18 to 1 microM affected only the efficacy of SNP (84 +/- 4.4% to 17 +/- 8.8%) and MCh (64.5 +/- 12.3% to 0.0 +/- 9.2%) and reduced the potency of FSK (7.91 +/- 0.26 to 7.15 +/- 0.10). The concentration of K+-ions from 25 to 30 and 40 mM increased the contractile force by 4.0 +/- 0.4, 7.0 +/- 0.5 and 10.8 +/- 0.4 mN, respectively. The increase in [K+] caused a potency decrease of FSK (7.1 +/- 0.0 to 5.8 +/- 0.0) whereas both efficacy and potency were reduced for SNP (95.6 +/- 1.8% to 65.8 +/- 1.9% and 8.7 +/- 0.1 to 7.2 +/- 0.1) and MCh (55.4 +/- 3.5% to 24.5 +/- 0.8% and 7.4 +/- 0.3 to 6.1 +/- 0.4). Inhibiting of the endothelial NO production by L-NAME 100 microM resulted after pre-contraction with PhE and potassium in comparable differences in properties for SNP. Pre-contraction with St 587 1, 3, 10 and 30 microM shows comparable results after nifedepine relaxation. The present experiments clearly demonstrate that the characteristics of the applied pre-contraction strongly, but differentially influence both the potency and efficacy of various vasodilator drugs in vitro. Accordingly, in vitro characterization of vasodilator drugs should be performed under a carefully standardized protocol of pre-contraction.