Indomethacin and the prostaglandin hypothesis of coronary blood flow regulation.

1. Recent experimental data support the view that prostaglandins might be involved in autoregulation of coronary blood flow. Since indomethacin blocks prostaglandin synthesis, the present study was performed to determine whether indomethacin also inhibits coronary vasodilatation induced by hypoxia.2. Coronary and systemic haemodynamic and metabolic effects of hypoxia (5% and 8% oxygen in nitrogen) were studied in intact, anaesthetized and vagotomized dogs before and after indomethacin.3. 30 and 60 min after administration of indomethacin coronary blood flow increases produced by hypoxia were considerably lower than those before indomethacin.4. These results are held to lend support to the hypothesis that prostaglandins are involved in the autoregulation of coronary blood flow.