Inhibitors of oxidative ATP production cause transient vasoconstriction and block subsequent pressor responses in rat lungs.

We wondered if depression of oxidative adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production caused pulmonary vasoconstriction. If so, then several chemically different inhibitors of oxidative ATP production all should cause pulmonary pressor responses. The vascular reactivity of isolated, blood-perfused rat lungs was established by eliciting pressor responses to airway hypoxia and to intraarterial angiotensin II. Then, during normoxia, we added to perfusate one of five chemical inhibitors of oxidative ATP production: 10 mM azide, 1 mM cyanide, 1 mM dinitrophenol, 5 or 10 microM antimycin A, or 0.5 microM rotenone. Each of the five chemical inhibitors, but not their solvents, caused a transient pressor response, followed by loss of vascular reactivity to hypoxia, angiotensin II, and chemical inhibitors. The inhibitor pressor responses were not due to an effect on blood cells, since they also were seen in lungs perfused with plasma. The magnitudes of pressor responses to all metabolic inhibitors except azide correlated with the magnitudes of preceding pressor responses to hypoxia, but not to the preceding angiotensin II responses. When verapamil or calcium chloride was added to perfusate, the hypoxic and inhibitor pressor responses were blunted more than was the angiotensin II response. Thus, five chemically different substances, inhibiting different steps of oxidative ATP production, all caused pressor responses that were blocked readily by verapamil and by increased perfusate calcium chloride. These results support the possibility that depression of oxidative ATP production elicits pulmonary vasoconstriction that is dependent on influx of extracellular calcium. Hypoxia might also be sensed in the pulmonary circulation by decreased oxidative ATP production in some as yet unidentified lung cell.