Adenosine potentiates neurally- and histamine-induced contraction of canine airway smooth muscle.

We studied the effect of adenosine on airway reactivity of isolated canine bronchial smooth muscle under isometric conditions in vitro. Administration of adenosine and its analogs increased the contractile responses of bronchial segments to electrical field stimulation in a dose-dependent fashion, where the rank order potency was N-ethylcarboxamideadenosine greater than adenosine greater than N-cyclohexyladenosine, but had no effect on those to exogenous acetylcholine. This potentiation was more pronounced at relatively low than at high stimulus frequencies, the maximal increase from the baseline responses being 56.3 +/- 9.6% at 1 Hz (mean +/- SE, p less than 0.01). Adenosine also increased the histamine-induced contraction causing a leftward shift of the histamine dose-response curves, an effect that was abolished in the presence of atropine. These results suggest that adenosine potentiates airway responsiveness to vagal stimulation and to histamine through the activation of prejunctional A2 receptor, probably involving the accelerated release of acetylcholine from the cholinergic nerve terminals.