Investigation of relaxations of the rabbit anococcygeus muscle by nerve stimulation and ATP using the ATP antagonist ANAPP3.

When tone was raised by histamine (10(-6) M), field stimulation (0.2-8 Hz) induced relaxation of the rabbit anococcygeus muscle in the continuous presence of guanethidine (10(-5) M) and atropine (10(-6) M). Similar relaxations could be induced by ATP and adenosine, which were approximately equipotent, but the non-hydrolyzable analogue beta-gamma-methylene ATP was less potent and produced relaxations which were slower. Although PGE2 was a potent relaxant in this muscle, release of endogenous prostaglandins does not appear to mediate the response to ATP since indomethacin (2 x 10(-5) M) pretreatment did not reduce responses to ATP. The specific ATP receptor antagonist, ANAPP3 (10(-4) or 10(-3) M) did not reduce responses to nerve stimulation and only slightly reduced those of exogenous ATP. The results indicate that responses to ATP could be mediated partly by the products of its hydrolysis and do not support the proposal that ATP is the inhibitory transmitter in this muscle.