The involvement of the endothelium in the relaxation of the leopard frog (Rana pipiens) aorta in response to acetylcholine.

1. The vasodilator response to acetylcholine (ACh) was investigated in the aortic arches of the leopard frog (Rana pipiens). 2. With adrenaline pre-constricted preparations, both ACh and sodium nitroprusside (SNP) caused concentration-dependent relaxations. Damage to the endothelial layer abolished relaxations to ACh, or reduced them greatly, but had no effect on vasodilatation to SNP. 3. NG-Nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME; 1-100 microM) concentration-dependently inhibited relaxations in response to ACh, but had no effect on the ability of SNP to induce vasodilatation. 4. L-Arginine (L-Arg; 100-200 times the concentration of L-NAME) failed to reverse the inhibitory effect of L-NAME (1-100 microM) apart from one isolated instance. 5. In summary, this study has shown endothelium-dependent vasodilatation to ACh in an amphibian blood vessel that appears to be mediated via nitric oxide (NO). The response to ACh differs from many mammalian preparations in that the inhibitory effect of L-NAME could not be overcome by L-Arg, in addition to L-NAME itself having no direct effect upon the tone of the vessel.